Aldo furious over McGregor-Alvarez booking, wants to cancel contract
Jose Aldo wants off of the Conor McGregor rollercoaster.
In light of the news that McGregor will be fighting lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205 as opposed to defending his featherweight belt, Aldo is now threatening to walk away from the promotion.
Aldo currently holds the featherweight division's interim title, a belt that he was led to believe would grant him a shot at the undisputed championship. He took to the offensive in an interview with Brazil's Combate news site on Tuesday.
"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, according to MMA Fighting's Guilherme Cruz, translating from Portuguese. "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 has been itching to avenge the 13-second knockout loss that McGregor handed him last December, costing him the featherweight title and ending a 10-year, 18-fight undefeated streak. However, he's also determined to be recognized as the undisputed champion at 145 pounds since McGregor has yet to defend the title. McGregor has instead been embroiled in a welterweight feud with Diaz.
According to White, McGregor will have to forfeit either the featherweight or lightweight championships should he defeat Alvarez, but Aldo is past the point of being pacified.
"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," Aldo said. "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."
After Tuesday's UFC 205 press conference, Aldo again spoke to Combate and suggested he's not just done with the UFC, but might be done with MMA altogether.
"If (White) likes me and my family, I just hope he releases me," Aldo said. "I don't want a fight. I want to leave as I came in. 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."