After all that, Jose Aldo is ready to take another fight in the UFC.
The former long-standing UFC featherweight champion took everyone by surprise last month with his announcement that he requested a contract termination after being denied another chance to exact revenge on Conor McGregor.
Aldo confirmed that he wanted to quit MMA entirely and pursue other options, claiming that the sport had lost its way. Andre Pederneiras even went as far to say that he would be willing to take the fight to court if the promotion refused him his wish. If that didn’t work, Aldo also suggested deliberately throwing fights in an effort to get the brass to end his current deal.
His meeting with president Dana White at the end of October appeared to go well, and now we’re hearing more details about those talks from Pederneiras.
The Nova Uniao head coach told Brazilian publication Combate that Aldo has not changed his mind about departing the sport. Although “Scarface” wants to do other things outside of MMA, he is also aware that the UFC will not allow him to while he is still under contract. Therefore, he has no option but to accept a fight.
“Aldo wants to do the other things, but in the conversations we had (with the UFC), it became clear that they’re not going to let him do that. There’s nothing we can do. We have to fight.”
With McGregor teasing some big “left-field” announcement at UFC 205, no one is certain what his plans after his lightweight title shot against undisputed 155 lb king Eddie Alvarez in New York will be. Aldo is aware that he can’t bank on finally getting a rematch against the Notorious in the near future, so he is prepared to take on another opponent. His only condition is that his next fight will be to unify his interim featherweight strap.
“I don’t know what Conor’s decision will be, but I think between February and March will be a good date. If he goes back to fight, he will only fight to unify the title, independent of who it’s against. Aldo will accept no other fight unless it’s to unify the title.”
Dana White has consistently hammered home his plan to make McGregor give up one of his belts should he beat Alvarez in Madison Square Garden, so a title unification bout against the winner of Max Holloway vs Anthony Pettis could be on the cards for Aldo early next year.
