UFC Interim Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo will not be getting a title unification bout. The featherweight champion Conor McGregor will be facing Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205 in a UFC lightweight title bout.
In his first fight after losing his championship to McGregor, Aldo won the interim title at UFC 200. McGregor has not returned to the division since taking the title from Aldo. In an interview with Brazilian website Combate, Aldo expressed his frustration with 2016 and his campaigning for a rematch with McGregor.
"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" said Aldo
According to Aldo, over the past few days he has been in negotiations with the UFC about a fight with McGregor.
"I heard about everything that happened through my coach. He had spoken with 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. (Andre 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 (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" said Aldo.
UFC has yet to respond to Jose Aldo's request to be released.
More of the interview is translated to English at mmafighting.com.
