Jose Aldo says that he wants to be released from his UFC contract.
In an interview with Brazilian website Combate, the 30-year-old spoke with frustration regarding his situation in the UFC.
On Monday night, the UFC confirmed that Conor McGregor's next fight will not be a defence of his featherweight title but instead a shot at the lightweight belt.
That decision leaves Aldo - who is currently the interim featherweight title holder - in limbo.
Aldo feels like he has been mislead by the promotion. The Brazilian was offered a fight at UFC 205 but it was not against McGregor. Instead it was proposed he face either Max Holloway or Anthony Pettis.
At one point, UFC president Dana White said McGregor would not be allowed to keep his featherweight title and have a shot at the lightweight crown. He and the UFC have since rowed back on that stance. That further exacerbated Aldo's frustration.
We waited until Dana publicly said that he wanted this fight with McGregor to happen. And then we expected it to happen: I’d get my rematch to unify the featherweight belts, or I’d have my belt back and fight Holloway or Pettis, since Dana [White] said all the time that Conor couldn’t keep both belts. But, to my surprise, I heard last night about the fight between McGregor and Eddie Alvarez, which was also denied by Dana last week. And to make it worse, he would keep the featherweight belt, and possibly having two belts at the same time.
Jose Aldo UFC contract dispute
Aldo feels he can no longer put any trust in what the UFC tells him and that McGregor is now the one making the decisions.
Conor himself said before that he wouldn’t give his belt away by any chance and nobody would take it away from him. After all this, I see I can’t trust any word from president Dana White, and who’s in charge of the promotion now is Conor McGregor. Since I’m not here to be an employee of McGregor, today I ask to cancel my contract with the UFC. When they offered me a fight with Frankie Edgar, Dana said that the winner would challenge McGregor or win the linear title, that he would lose his belt if he didn’t return to the featherweight division after his rematch with Nate Diaz. After being fooled so many times, I don’t feel motivated to fight in the UFC anymore.
Dana White said yesterday that should McGregor defeat Eddie Alvarez and become simultaneous holder of the lightweight and featherweight belts, he will have to vacate one of them.
Due to previous experience, this is something Aldo does not believe will happen.
I don’t believe in Dana saying that Conor would have to vacate one of the belts after UFC 205 because, based on what we’re seeing, this type of decision is not in his hands anymore, Conor makes the calls now. And the biggest proof that who’s in charge in the UFC now is Conor is that when I wanted to move up to fight Pettis, they said I’d have to vacate my belt and try this fight with no title whatsoever. But with him, they let him move up to the division above without losing his belt, and also let him do any fight he wants. I understand that he sells a lot, but it gets to a limit when it’s no longer a sport, it becomes a circus. I don’t want any type of fight with the UFC. The only thing I want is to go on with my life, and they will go on with theirs.
In a further interview with Revista Combate, Aldo added that he no longer wants a career in MMA.
I don’t even want to fight MMA. I want to follow a career in another sport. That’s what I want.
Picture credit: Ramsey Cardy / SPORTSFILE
Translation via MMA Fighting
