For years, Nova Uniao has been a conveyor belt for killers.
The Rio de Janeiro gym has produced such MMA talent as Renan Barao, Junior dos Santos and Thales Leites over the years but perhaps the biggest name to come out of Nova Uniao is reigning UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo.
And Aldo, who aims to unify the featherweight belt by defeating interim champion Conor McGregor in December, has pointed to another prospect from Brazil to take over from him when Aldo finally retires.
“In Nova União there’s Hacran Dias, Felipe Froes, Nikolas Motta who was on TUF, Felipe Jesus. But there’s one kid I can see becoming the champion, Kaue Fernandes.” Aldo told Combate.
“He’s aggressive, good at kickboxing, good on the ground. He only had two fights so far, but in a while you’ll see this kid shining. When I stop fighting, I hope to see someone from my gym following my footsteps, I hope I can pass the baton to a Brazilian, so that them (foreigners) can never have the taste.”
Fernandes is currently 2-0 in professional MMA, having finished both of his fights inside 30 seconds and, while he’s still relatively green, an endorsement from Jose Aldo won’t do his chances of making it to the UFC any harm.
