Jose Aldo asks for his release from the UFC or he will retire
Interim featherweight champion Jose Aldo is fed up with excuses and lies about his rematch with Conor McGregor and he's now asked for his release from the UFC as a result.
Aldo spoke to Combate in Brazil on Tuesday after news was released that McGregor wouldn't be returning to 145 pounds and would instead face Eddie Alvarez for the lightweight title at UFC 205.
To make matters worse, McGregor will retain his featherweight title for at least one more fight while Aldo is left holding onto the interim strap he won back at UFC 200 with a win over Frankie Edgar.
Aldo was extremely upset after the UFC tried to offer him a fight on the same card on Nov. 12 against either Max Holloway or Anthony Pettis while also refusing to strip McGregor of the title as previously promised.
"We waited until Dana (White) 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 said all the time that Conor couldn’t keep both belts," Aldo said (translation by MMAFighting).
"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."
White stated on Tuesday that the UFC was allowing McGregor to retain the featherweight title for at least one more fight so he could potentially become the first ever simultaneous two division champion if he can beat Alvarez in November.
At that point, White claims that McGregor would then have to surrender one of the titles and remain in either the lightweight or featherweight division.
For his part, McGregor didn't sound willing to give up either belt if he gets past Alvarez at UFC 205.
"I'm going to wrap one (belt) on one shoulder and I'm going to wrap the other (belt) on the other shoulder and they're going to need a (expletive) army to come take them belts off me," McGregor said during the UFC 205 press conference.
Aldo seems to believe McGregor's words because the UFC still hasn't stripped him despite numerous promises in the past to take the belt away from him if he didn't defend it.
At this point, Aldo is sick and tired of the excuses and he immediately asked for his release from the UFC.
"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," Aldo said. "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."
Aldo says that he understands the kind of money that McGregor draws into the company but at the same time he was never afforded the same opportunity. The interim champion brought up a proposed bout from a few years ago when he wanted to move to 155 pounds to challenge Anthony Pettis for the title, but the UFC said that he would have to give up the featherweight belt to do it.
The double standard doesn't make sense to Aldo and that's just another reason he wants out of the UFC.
"I understand that he sells a lot, but it gets to a limit when it’s no longer a sport, it becomes a circus," Aldo said. "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."
Later Tuesday night, UFC president Dana White spoke to the same outlet and assured them that he would speak to Aldo and smooth things over with the interim champion.
That didn't sit too well with Aldo, who immediately reiterated his previous statement and then said that if the UFC didn't want to release him from his contract than he would just retire from the sport altogether.
"If (Dana) likes me and my family, I just hope he released me. I don’t want a fight. I want to leave as I came in," Aldo said. "The UFC and WEC didn’t give me anything. Everything I conquered was my merit and from my team. Nobody gave me anything. I conquered everything. And I gave them a lot more than they gave me back. I just want them to release me from my contract. I’m not a whore to sell myself (for money).
"I don’t even want to fight MMA. I want to follow a career in another sport. That’s what I want."
