Jose Aldo wants out of the UFC after being denied yet another chance to exact revenge on Conor McGregor, but Chael Sonnen thinks this is an overreaction.
When McGregor was booked to take on Eddie Alvarez for the lightweight belt at the huge UFC 205 event in New York, interim featherweight champion Aldo saw it as the final straw.
The Brazilian had expected to face ‘The Notorious’ in a title unification bout next. Or, at the very least, he’d hoped to get promoted to featherweight champion with McGregor taking a third fight in a row away from the 145 lb division without defending his belt.
However, the Dubliner will be allowed to hold his belt going into the fight as he attempts to claim a second, a decision which has seen Aldo request a contract termination, something which he is willing to fight for in court should the UFC refuse his wish.
The end of an era? https://t.co/hjqnsgJ47U
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) September 29, 2016
Bellator star Chael Sonnen weighed in on the curious case of Jose Aldo during a recent episode of his podcast, ‘You’re Fired’. The American Gangster sympathises with the former 145lb king, but he feels that ‘Scarface’ should look at the situation from the promotion’s point of view.
“Even when you get that call from the UFC, there’s moving parts. Let’s say I’m at the UFC, I’m Joe Silva, I’m Dana White and I make that call to Conor and I give him my word on something, my word is as good as the information that I have at the time that we talk. If I promise the guy I fight, I need the other guy to also fight.”
Sonnen argues that once the other party involved in a match-up doesn’t sign the bout agreement, then there’s not much the promotion can do – particularly if there are other fights available that make more sense from a business perspective.
“Sometimes the UFC, Scott Coker, Ray Sefo, the guys who are leading this industry, they get accused of lying. It’s like, if I tell you something and that turns out to not happen that’s not a lie if things change. You do your best. You’re trying to make things happen, you believe them at the time. When things change you’ve got to remake a phone call and go, ‘Look, some new information’s come out and here’s what it is today.”
One development that may have irked Aldo last week was Dana White announcing that Alvarez would be defending his crown against number-one contender Khabib Nurmagomedov next, meaning that McGregor would likely drop back down to finally defend his belt. However, once Alvarez actively tried to seal his Red Panty Night, Sonnen believes that plan was thrown out the window.
“So Jose Aldo thinks he’s going to get the Conor fight, that’s the fight he wants. But when it gets announced that Khabib Nurmagomedov is not going to be fighting Eddie Alvarez, but rather Conor is going to be fighting Eddie, it then sends the wheels into motion which means that Aldo will not be fighting Conor.”
“I just don’t want Jose to think that he was lied to. Things change. Something that is true right now, boy, you could get a phone call and all of a sudden, things change. You’ve got shows, you’ve got dates, there’s things that go on – on the level of marketing and production and television and PPV Â – that are larger than any one guy.”
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The timing of Aldo’s announcement was odd, because it has already been confirmed that McGregor will be stripped of one of his belts should he beat Alvarez. Although he doesn’t believe the president’s promise, Sonnen does.
“I don’t think Jose was swerved here. Jose is the interim champion. His next fight will either to defend that interim belt or Conor will be stripped – which I personally think is going to happen, Â I don’t think Conor’s going back to 145, at which point Jose will fight for that undisputed championship.”
“I don’t think things have changed in Jose Aldo’s life all that much. He’s still got a fight, he’s still in the same contract, he’s still in the same weight class, he’s still fighting for a championship of some kind. I just don’t think there’s enough there for Jose to be overly upset.”
Sonnen also brought up the fact that Aldo was actually offered his chance at redemption against McGregor at UFC 196 after Rafael dos Anjos pulled out of the main event due to injury. However, Aldo turned down the offer at a week’s notice claiming he was not adequately prepared for the fight.
“He was given his shot against Conor, it didn’t go his way and he wants to get another one. He was offered that Conor fight. I’m just telling history the way it is. This is what happened. Jose was offered that fight and he said ‘No.'”
“Now he’s saying ‘Now I’m ready for the fight and now you told me I could have it.’ Well Jose, that goes two ways. You also at one point said that you would do the fight. You then called the next day and said,’ I won’t do the fight.’ That happened. I’m not piling on. Jose’s a very nice guy, but let’s just tell the story the way that it happened.”
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