JOSE ALDO NOT HAPPY WITH UFC, ASKS FOR RELEASE
With all of the excitement surrounding the announcement of Eddie Alvarez vs. Conor McGregor at UFC 205, there was at least one person who wasn’t too happy about it.
Jose Aldo doesn’t like the fight and thinks that he should be the one fighting McGregor. In fact, he’s so upset, he’s ready to quit the promotion over it.
Aldo told Combate in Brazil that he was asked to fight on the Nov. 12 event in New York City that McGregor is headlining against Alvarez, but that he was asked to fight Max Holloway or Anthony Pettis, rather than unifying his Interim Featherweight Championship with McGregor’s championship – the one he beat Aldo for last December in 13 seconds.
Aldo was hopeful he would get the McGregor fight after Alvarez was said to be fighting Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 206 and also after White said McGregor would have to forfeit his Featherweight Championship if his next fight wasn’t at 145 lbs.
Aldo turned down the fights with Holloway and Pettis, citing the need for a “full camp,” but was willing to fight McGregor on Nov. 12. Aldo sounded to be upset that he wasn’t getting his unification bout and that he wasn’t gifted the Featherweight Championship through stripping McGregor and feels deceived by Dana White and the UFC.
“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,” he 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.”
Last night, White told Combate TV that he would work things out with Aldo. Aldo, though, doesn’t sound interested in making a deal right now. “If he likes me and my family, I just hope he releases me,” he said to Revista Combate. “I don’t want a fight. I want to leave as I came in.”
Hiscoe’s Analysis: What shocks me most about this situation is that he would have been perfectly happy if McGregor were stripped of his championship and then defend the “real” belt against Holloway or Pettis and never get his rematch with McGregor. I would have expected Aldo to want nothing else but to fight McGregor and say that he wouldn’t consider his championship legitimate if he didn’t get his rematch. It’s clear that Aldo takes himself and the sport very seriously, which is perfectly okay for a professional athlete, but he doesn’t seem to understand the realities of the business he’s in. He lost in 13 seconds to McGregor just 9 months ago, so it’s understandable that McGregor isn’t pining to cut the weight to fight Aldo again so soon. The only reason Aldo is in a position to fight McGregor at 145 is because UFC wanted to put another title fight on UFC 200 so they created a interim championship much earlier than they normally would when a champion is absent. The longer Aldo keeps winning, the bigger a rematch with McGregor would be, so he should’ve taken one of the two fights offered him and made a statement in winning moments before McGregor got in the cage with Alvarez, but now that opportunity is gone and he doesn’t seem interested in getting it back.
WEDNESDAY NOTEBOOK ITEMS…
-Dana White said on ESPN Sportscenter that Conor McGregor would have to give up one of his championships should he be a two-weight champion following UFC 205.
-White said on the UFC Unfiltered podcast that Ronda Rousey is interested in a fight with Cris Cyborg.
-Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Michael Johnson was officially announced by Dana White for UFC 205 at last night’s press conference.
-The Superior Justice Court of MMA has decided to file a complaint against Roy Nelson for kicking referee John McCarthy after his knockout win over Bigfoot Silva Saturday night. This group is a newly formed governing body over all sports in Brazil.
-Dana White told TMZ that he spoke to C.M. Punk after his loss to Mickey Gall and told him to “live like a normal person for a little while,” before revisiting his MMA career.
-A strawweight fight between Claudia Gadelha and Cortney Casey has been made for “UFC Fight Night: Sao Paolo” on Nov. 19.
(MMATorch’s Daily News Digest features the top story of the day with added analysis, plus smaller tidbits in the News Notes section. Mike Hiscoe has a background in film criticism and previously wrote for the DVD Town and Movie Metropolis websites. His passion for Mixed Martial Arts goes back to 2005, but it was in the promotion for UFC 60: Hughes vs. Gracie that he really got hooked.”This is my house, I build it,” is still among the all-time great UFC promos. You can follow Mike on social media under the tag @mikehiscoe. He now provides his experienced writing and perspective on live MMA events for MMATorch.)
Conor is not “absent”. He’s fought 2 times, soon to be 3, since becoming FW Champion. He simply refuses to defend his belt, just as he has with every title he has ever won in the sport. I see Aldo’s position here.