Jose Aldo asks for his UFC release

For over 290 days, Conor McGregor has been the UFC Featherweight Champion (technically interim now). He has stated many times that he will take on all comers, but has yet to defend his title. There have been opportunities for a title fight that just get swept under the rug. It appears one fighter has had enough.

In an interesting move, Jose Aldo lashed out at the UFC for not living up to their promises, among other things. The Brazilian fighter beat Frankie Edgar at UFC 200 for the interim Featherweight Title, with Conor next on his list. He was hoping the Edgar fight would lead to a rematch with McGregor (who beat Aldo in 13 seconds at UFC 194) to become the undisputed champion. Instead, “The Notorious One” received a shot against Eddie Alvarez for the UFC Lightweight Title at UFC 205.

Aldo spoke to Brazilian website Combate in great detail about his dissatisfaction with the company, and its leadership (MMA Fighting went into further detail). He thought he was left in the dark after dreaming for an opportunity like this. Aldo stated:

“…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. 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. Since I’m not here to be an employee of McGregor, today I ask to cancel my contract with the UFC.”

That is a lot to process. He basically called UFC President Dana White Conor McGregor’s puppet, with the latter leading the UFC to basically become the Conor McGregor Show. Aldo later went on to say he wouldn’t be motivated enough to continue his UFC / MMA career. He wants to do something different. These statements could possibly be the final nail in the coffin of his legendary career.

Dana White responded by promising he would speak to Aldo to work something out. He definitely see’s value in a fighter that was undefeated for over 10 years. Aldo is also a cultural icon, and losing him would be terrible for business. While it is unfortunate that it has come to this, its surprising something hasn’t happened sooner. Aldo knows he deserved a fight against McGregor, and once he didn’t get it he wasn’t going to stand by and do nothing.

Whether he stays true to his word or not remains to be seen. Aldo has already received challenges from fighters outside the UFC just in case he doesn’t plan to retire from MMA as a whole.

httpss://twitter.com/PatricioPitbull/status/780966302575886336

If Aldo went to Bellator that would certainly be something. A signing like that would give the company a much needed boost, and possibly gain a new audience. Aldo has many options at this point and I’m sure he will be thinking about this opportunity.

This news coming after the hype of UFC 205 is probably not what Dana White expected. One of his fighters got tired of waiting and I don’t blame him. Aldo deserves better and it would be terrible for him to go out like this. Hopefully we will know more in the coming days. Until then, all we can do is enjoy the show.