COACH SAYS ALDO WANTS OUT OF UFC… FOR REAL
According to his coach, Jose Aldo is serious when he says he wants to be released from the UFC and he’s not going to budge.
In an interview with SporTV in Brazil, Aldo’s head coach Andre Pederneiras confirmed that the current UFC interim featherweight champion wants to leave the promotion and possibly the sport all together.
“In my mind, from the conversations we had, he no longer wants to fight for the UFC,” Pederneiras said while later adding, “In his head, he wants out.”
Following the announcement that current lineal Featherweight Champion Conor McGregor would be moving up to challenge Eddie Alvarez for his Lightweight Championship at UFC 205, Aldo was upset he was neither going to get a rematch against McGregor nor was he going to be crowned the official Featherweight Champion.
Aldo, before losing to McGregor last December, had won 18 in a row and hadn’t lost in more than ten years. He is 19-1 in his last 20 fights and is 26-2 overall. He would be the most successful fighter to retire from MMA and not fight in his 30s. He just turned 30 earlier this month.
Aldo and Pederneiras are so adamant about ending Aldo’s relationship with UFC that Pederneiras will be in Portland, Oregon this weekend, where UFC is holding a Fight Night event, hoping to meet with Dana White and discuss the termination of Aldo’s contract. “I’m traveling today,” he told SporTV. “Hopefully, I’ll have a meeting with the matchmakers. I believe Dana will be at this event, so we can sit down and figure out the best way to terminate the contract.”
He also confirmed that Aldo may not be looking to leave UFC to compete in MMA elsewhere, and that he may want to try something new, but Pederneiras wouldn’t divulge details.
“The future is a secret,” he said. “[Aldo] wants to compete in other sports, but I can’t say now. So we’re just waiting to be freed from the contract. But it wouldn’t be at MMA.”
Whatever it is Aldo wants to do next, he will need to get out of his contract first.
Hiscoe’s Analysis: If Aldo is truly done with MMA, all he has to do is retire. UFC can’t stop him from retiring, but where it gets tricky is if he’s bluffing and he actually does want to fight elsewhere and it also gets complicated depending what he wants to do next. If Aldo were to retire from UFC/MMA and then start competing in professional kickboxing, that could be in violation of his contract and he could be facing a lawsuit. If Aldo wants to play soccer, maybe that’d be okay, but I’m not sure. I have no idea what kind of sport Aldo would want to compete in, but it’s likely something similar enough to MMA where he would need the UFC to grant him a release so he would be able to compete.
Pederneiras should probably confirm with Dana White that he is going to be in Portland since White doesn’t attend many Fight Night events these days and this is also something that isn’t going to be hashed out in the hallway backstage at an event and will likely entail many long meetings and negotiations and lawyers getting involved as I don’t see UFC just giving Aldo the okay to go do what he wants. I don’t think Aldo would be a huge difference-maker for a Bellator or WSOF on his own, but with the slow trickling out of upper-mid level talents to these outside promotions, it could start to make the UFC look less major league to casual fans. UFC should try to make things right with Aldo, but if he insists on leaving, life for UFC will go on, even if he does end up with a competitor.
THURSDAY NOTEBOOK ITEMS…
-Thiago Santos suffered a thigh injury wine escaping a submission during his fight with Eric Spicely last Saturday. Spicely defeated Santos by submission in the first round.
-Arnold Allen has been forced to pull out of his UFC 204 fight with Mirsad Bektic. UFC will be looking for a new opponent for Bektic.
FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENT ROUND-UP
-Jorge Masvidal vs. Jake Ellenberger at the TUF 24 Finale, Dec. 3 in Las Vegas.
-Valerie Letourneau vs. Nova Uniao at UFC 206, Dec. 10 in Toronto.
-Cezar Ferreira vs. Jack Hermansson at UFC Fight Night: Sao Paolo, on Nov. 19.
-Mark Godbeer vs. Justin Ledet at UFC Fight Night: Belfast on Nov. 19.
-Former Bellator champion Alexander Volkov vs. Timothy Johnson at Fight Night: Belfast on Nov.19.
THROWBACK THURSDAY
Watch John Lineker make quick work of Francisco Rivera last year.
(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.)
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