Jose Aldo doesn’t want to be in the UFC anymore, and his team is willing to go to court to fight out of his contract with the promotion.
Aldo announced on Tuesday that he wants his contract with the promotion terminated after the UFC announced that UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor would fight at 155 pounds against lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez, and wouldn’t have to vacate the 145-pound belt.
Aldo, who won the interim featherweight title in July and hoped to face "The Notorious" next to unify the belts, criticized the promotion for letting McGregor make the calls, and went on to say he no longer wants to fight MMA.
UFC president Dana White told Combate TV on Tuesday that he would call Aldo and his team to talk about his situation, and would not terminate his contact.
Speaking with Brazilian outlet Combate on Wednesday, Aldo’s longtime coach and manager Andre Pederneiras revealed that they are willing to go to court to get Aldo’s wish fulfilled, and have already talked to a lawyer to take a look to his contract and see what can be done.
"I think Dana and the new owners have to understand that there’s a completely unsatisfied employee who doesn’t want to continue," Pederneiras said. "If that was in Brazil and a guy said ‘boss, I want to leave,’ I’d say ‘Ok, I can’t hold you.’ The contract we have in the UFC, ‘boss, I want to leave,’ the answer is ‘no, you’ll be stuck with me, you might not do anything, but you can’t leave here.’ Is that something nice?
"I think it creates dissatisfaction, and he will want to go to court. He would have to go to court to cut this contract. And the damage a dissatisfied person, someone like Aldo, talking sh*t to everyone about a lot of things, I think the company wouldn’t want a guy like this every day in the media talking trash. Since the guy doesn’t want to do it, let him leave! ‘I just want to leave, I don’t want to stay here anymore, I don’t want to fight here. I don’t want to be in anymore.’ We don’t want a war, we don’t want a fight, we don’t want to talk bad about anyone. We only want the right to say ‘I don’t want to be here anymore. It’s not about money, I don’t want to be here anymore.’"
According to the report, Aldo still has six fights left in his contract with the UFC. "Scarface", who beat Frankie Edgar for the interim belt at the historic UFC 200 event in Las Vegas, was unhappy with the way he was treated by the promotion after losing to McGregor in December.
"He was already pissed off with the situation of being left aside without an answer," Pederneiras said. "You can’t do that with someone like Aldo. You can do that to someone who just entered the UFC now, but not with a guy that went undefeated for 10 years, not with a guy that was the first and only champion until he lost the belt in a 13-second situation, and earned his rematch, was fooled and it didn’t happen. I think the company has its financial side – I have a company and will always think on the financial side – but I won’t lie to my employee. If there’s no way to do it, there’s no way to do it. I won’t tell everybody something, put in the news for everyone to see, and then be caught in a lie."
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