Jose Aldo hates the UFC's deal with Reebok; would like to see a fighters union

Although a growing legion of fighters have loudly expressed their distaste for the UFC's exclusive sponsorship deal with Reebok, none of the promotion's champions had publicly come out against it.

That all changed Sunday night, though, when long-time featherweight kingpin Jose Aldo unleashed a passionate rant to Combate (as translated by BloodyElbow.com's Lucas Rezende) about the sheer monetary ridiculousness of the UFC's pact with the apparel giant.

First of all. It's shit. Everybody has been talking about it. We, athletes, are losing a lot. They said we would be like NBA or NFL athlete, but that doesn't apply, because we are not paid monthly like they are. It doesn't matter how much we will be paid, all athletes who had sponsors are losing money. That's a huge setback for us. We live for each fight, we have to keep fighting and nobody fights more than three times a year. Not a champion, anyway. Even the value they measured doesn't match what our sponsors were paying us. That is great for the UFC, but not for the fighters. I see a lot of athletes losing too much. If you are a beginner there is not that big of a hurry to get paid, but it still isn't that much. Not enough to get them by at least. I don't like it. Ever since they started talking about this, I asked to see what they were offering us and I never thought it was interesting, especially for the champions.

Aldo isn't out to denigrate the advancements the UFC has made for the sport of MMA, but he feels the athletes, much like every other major sports organization in the world, should have the protection of a union.

If we are going to talk about something, that does not depend on just me being the champion, or Cain Velasquez, or any other champion. If we had a union for fighters, and we were all together, like in the NBA, this would've been different. But fighters are not united. Today I have a price the event is willing to pay to have me, but there are other fighters out there willing to fight for spare change if I don't want to, and that is not even their fault. The UFC brought the sport to where it is today, great, that's their merit. But if athletes were more united and had a union to protect them, I don't think this would happen.