Dana White: Manager makes it look like Jose Aldo is afraid of Anthony Pettis

When Anthony Pettis won the UFC Lightweight Championship (watch it here) from Ben Henderson last night (Aug. 31, 2013), one of the first things he said in his post-fight interview was he wanted a piece of current UFC Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo.

There was no fear or hesitation in "Showtime's" voice, and his challenge most likely came as a response to comments made by Aldo's manager/trainer Andre Pederneiras. Ever since Pettis dropped out of his UFC 163 title fight against Aldo two months ago, Pederneiras has been on the offensive, claiming Pettis faked the knee injury to get out of fighting Aldo.

He most recently stated he'd be willing to apologize as long as the Roufusport fighter vacated the UFC Lightweight Title and moved down to 145 pounds to fight Aldo, which drove UFC President Dana White a bit batty in his post-fight media scrum yesterday.

"Here's the thing, you can tell 100 percent Anthony Pettis is willing to go wherever it takes. I know that Jose's coach is saying, 'Bro, he can come down here at 145.' Because they think [Pettis would] be at a disadvantage whereas I actually think he'd be at a huge advantage at 145. He's big, strong.

In fact, White went as far as to say all the talk from Aldo's people makes it seem like "Scarface" is afraid to fight Pettis:

"For his manager to come out, and this is what drives me crazy about managers, and I love him. He's a good guy. I've known Andre [Pederneiras] for years. But when you come out and make a statement like that, you make it look like your guy is afraid of him, you know what I mean? You make it look like Aldo was afraid. And that might not be Aldo's same opinion, it might be his manager saying, 'This is what I want to happen here,' but it makes it look like he's afraid of Anthony Pettis, which already gives Anthony Pettis an advantage."

Pettis has already stated he'd be willing to fight Aldo at either weight class and it didn't matter which title was on the line for him. Does White have a point about the public perception of Jose Aldo right now? What's your take?

For complete results and play-by-play of last night's UFC 164 event as well as immediate post-fight reaction to Pettis' title win, click here and here.