Former featherweight champ and now interim titleholder Jose Aldo says he no longer wants to fight for the UFC.
Following UFC 205’s main-event booking, a lightweight title affair between 145-pound champ Conor McGregor (20-3 MMA, 8-1 UFC) and 155-pound titleholder Eddie Alvarez (28-4 MMA, 3-1 UFC), Aldo (26-2 MMA, 8-1 UFC) told Combate.com he can’t trust “a single word” of what UFC president Dana White says.
With McGregor now able to become the first UFC fighter to hold belts in two different classes simultaneously, Aldo believes the Irishman is now “in charge” of the UFC. And that, unwilling to “work for” his foe, he wants out.
“After all of this, I see I can’t trust a single word from president Dana White and that the person in charge of the event now is Conor McGregor,” Aldo said. “Since I’m not here to be McGregor’s employee, I ask for my contract with the UFC to be terminated.
“When they suggested the fight against Frankie Edgar, Dana said the winner of this fight would either be McGregor’s challenger or have the linear belt, because if he didn’t return to the featherweight division after the Nate Diaz rematch he’d lose the belt.
“After so many times being lied to, I don’t feel motivated to fight in the UFC anymore.”
Aldo explained that, after White publicly said McGregor would need to either defend his belt or vacate it, he was expecting to either try to avenge his UFC 194 loss to McGregor in a title-unification bout or to defend the undisputed title against Max Holloway or Anthony Pettis.
“So we waited, until Dana said publicly that he wanted this fight with McGregor to happen,” Aldo said. “We were expecting it to happen: Either I’d have my rematch to unify the featherweight belt or I’d get my belt back fighting (Max) Holloway or (Anthony) Pettis, considering that, according to what Dana himself had been saying all along, Conor couldn’t keep both belts.
“But, to my surprise, I found out last night about the fight between McGregor and Eddie Alvarez, who’d also been denied by Dana himself last week and, to make matters worse, he’d keep the featherweight belt, being able to get two belts simultaneously.”
This, Aldo said, is made worse by the fact that, when he was the one expressing his desire to fight then-champ Anthony Pettis to become a two-division title-holder, he was told no.
“I understand (McGregor) is a big draw, but there’s a limit in which this is no longer a sport and it’s a circus,” Aldo said. “I don’t want any type of fight with the UFC. The only thing I want is to move on with my life and that they move on with theirs.”
After the initial interview, Aldo appeared on Combate’s weekly news program “Revista,” where he doubled down on his request for a release and threatened to walk away from the sport.
“It’s not about money for me,” Aldo said. “I can’t take it anymore. I’ve reached my limit. It’s not about the circus or anything (White) might do. I don’t know, for me, if he likes me – like he’s said he likes me and my family – I just ask that he lets me go normally. I don’t want to fight. I want to walk out the same way I walked in.
“I think the UFC never gave me anything, or WEC. Everything I earned. Everything was thanks to my efforts, my family’s, my team’s, ‘Dede,’ they helped me get there. In no moment did they give me anything. I earned it with my own merit, and I gave them a lot more than they gave me. So I just want them to release me from my contract.
“I don’t want to fight anymore. What if they offer me millions? They can keep them, I don’t want it. Pardon the expression, but I’m not a whore, to sell myself. I’m a man. My dad made me this way. So that’s all I want.”
While it seems highly unlikely the UFC will grant Aldo his walking papers, the current interim champ said he’d be just fine walking away from MMA entirely.
“To me, that’s the fair thing,” Aldo said. “I just want (White) to let me go so I can go on with my life. And what I want to do next? I don’t even want to fight MMA anymore. I want to get a career in another sport, which has always been a dream. That’s what I want.”
Check out a translation of Aldo’s full interview with Combate.com below.
How did you find out that the main event of UFC 205 would be between Eddie Alvarez and Conor McGregor?
“I heard about everything that happened from my coach. He’d talked to Sean Shelby on Saturday, and Sean didn’t have an answer for anything and asked if I could fight on Nov. 12. My coach answered that if it were against Conor, yes, and then Sean asked him if I’d fight Max Holloway or Anthony Pettis. Then (Andre Pederneiras) said that, for these two, he’d rather do a full camp and that it could happen on Dec. 10.
“So we waited until Dana said publicly that he wanted this fight with McGregor to happen. Then we were expecting it to happen: either I’d have my rematch to unify the featherweight belt or I’d get my belt back fighting Holloway or Pettis, considering that, according to what Dana himself had been saying all along, Conor couldn’t keep both belts. But, to my surprise, I found out last night about the fight between McGregor and Eddie Alvarez, who’d also been denied by Dana himself last week and, to make matters worse, he’d keep the featherweight belt, being able to get two belts simultaneously.
What did you think of the UFC letting Conor keep the linear belt even though he hasn’t fought in the division since you two fought?
“Conor, himself, had said he wasn’t going to give the belt away and that no one would take it from him. After all of this, I see I can’t trust a single word from president Dana White and that the person in charge of the event now is Conor McGregor. Since I’m not here to be McGregor’s employer, I ask for my contract with the UFC to be terminated. When they suggested the fight against Frankie Edgar, Dana said the winner of this fight would either be McGregor’s challenger or have the undisputed belt, because if he didn’t return to the featherweight division after the Nate Diaz rematch, he’d lose the belt. After so many times being lied to, I don’t feel motivated to fight in the UFC anymore.
Dana White said that, regardless of the outcome of this fight against Alvarez, McGregor will have to defend the featherweight belt next.
I no longer believe in Dana’s statement that Conor would have to give up one of the belts after UFC 205 since, from what we’re seeing, this type of decision is no longer in his hands, since now Conor is the one calling the shots. The biggest proof that the person in charge of the UFC is Conor is that when I wanted to move up to fight Pettis, they said I’d have to give up my belt and try the fight with no belt. With him, not only did they let him fight in the upper division without losing the belt, they let him do other fights as he wishes.
“I understand he’s a big draw, but there’s a limit in which this is no longer a sport and it’s a circus. I don’t want any type of fight with the UFC. The only thing I want is to move on with my life and that they move on with theirs.
For more on UFC 205, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.
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