Jose Aldo Requests Release from UFC, Says He Wants to Retire

Upset about not being given a rematch against Conor McGregor at UFC 205, Jose Aldo has requested a release from his contract.

Aldo made his comments to the Brazilian website Combate (translation via Guilherme Cruz of MMA Fighting):

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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. 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, 30, lost to McGregor in 13 seconds at UFC 194 to drop the featherweight championship. He rebounded with a win over Frankie Edgar at UFC 200 for the interim featherweight title, which he believed put him in line for a second shot at McGregor.

Instead, McGregor will fight reigning lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez in the UFC 205 main event. McGregor fought his previous two bouts at welterweight, splitting a pair of classics with Nate Diaz.

Aldo said he was offered to fight Max Holloway or Anthony Pettis rather than McGregor:

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I heard about everything that happened through my coach. He had spoken with [UFC matchmaker] Sean Shelby Saturday and Sean still had no answer about anything, and asked if I could fight on November 12. My coach said that if it would be Conor, yes, and then Sean asked him if I would fight Max Holloway or Anthony Pettis. "Dede" [Pederneiras] said that for those who I’d rather do a full camp and it could be on December 10. We waited until Dana publicly said that he wanted this fight with McGregor to happen. And then we expected it to happen: I’d get my rematch to unify the featherweight belts, or I’d have my belt back and fight Holloway or Pettis, since Dana [White] said all the time that Conor couldn’t keep both belts. But, 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.

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It's unclear whether the person pulling the strings here is UFC President Dana White or McGregor. On paper, Aldo-McGregor II would be the bigger fight to put on a pay-per-view marquee. The quick-strike knockout at 194 was not representative of what anyone expected from their first bout, which most expected to rank among the best in 2015.

Aldo said he would rather retire than continue fighting in UFC given the disrespect, per Cruz:

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If [White] likes me and my family, I just hope he released me. 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.

"

Alvarez has never fought in a UFC pay-per-view main event. He's 3-1 since joining UFC and has been relegated to Fight Night cards for his last two bouts. Alvarez is seventh in the sport's pound-for-pound rankings, and Aldo is fifth.

From an objective fighting standpoint, Aldo has a case to be frustrated. But McGregor no doubt wants a shot at holding the lightweight and featherweight titles at the same time. After the snafu between White and McGregor prior to UFC 200—which resulted in his fight with Diaz being taken off the card—perhaps the president is acquiescing to his biggest star.

Follow Tyler Conway (@jtylerconway) on Twitter.