Jose Aldo’s Coach: ‘He Wants To End The UFC Contract As Soon As Possible’

Jose Aldo has had a rough few years since losing to Conor McGregor at UFC 194 and it appears that he’s looking to end his UFC contract as soon as he can.

Aldo’s head coach, André Pederneiras, spoke to SPORTV in Brazil this past weekend and gave an update on the status of the former UFC featherweight champion.

Having lost his title to Max Holloway back at UFC 212 in front of this home fans in Rio, Pederneiras spoke about the impact the defeat had on his student and he revealed that Aldo took it in a very similar way to his loss to McGregor.

“With Conor, it was a defeat, that firstly we did not expect, and secondly, the way it happened, it was so fast, we couldn’t show anything,” Pederneiras said. “One fighter threw, the other also threw, one hit the chin and the other the eyebrow and he had not lost in the UFC yet.

“The impact [on him] was very large. Losing at home was [also] very bad, in front of the crowd. They are similar weight losses.”

It’s been widely known that Aldo has wanted to try his hand at boxing for a few years now and that desire hasn’t gone away.

Pederneiras revealed that Aldo and his team had gone as far as asking the UFC for the chance to box, but that their request had been rejected.

“Aldo has wanted to do boxing for a long time,” Pederneiras said. “This happened for Conor, but this wasn’t of interest between us and the UFC. We had other issues that we went to Vegas to talk to Dana about.

“He asked to fight boxing, Dana denied and, later, Conor was fighting boxing. He did not have the thought he thought he might have. Months before he asked, the answer was no. Months later Conor manages to fight in boxing without problem and the UFC allowed it. Of course he has a lot of money involved and in his [Aldo’s] fight he would not, but not everything in life is money. He became quite unmotivated.”

Pederneiras then went on to reveal that Aldo hadn’t decided on whether he would fight again in the UFC and that he was advocating for him to take some time away from the sport.

“We’re still talking to see how much he wants to keep fighting or not,” Pederneiras said. “I think Aldo’s career is a career that nobody can talk badly about. He can do whatever he wants. To retire, to continue, to make a super-fight. He is thinking. He is a guy who has managed to make a lot of money over the course of his career and he can retire today without depending on anyone. He will never go hungry in his life. He invested his money, he knew how to save it.

He later added:

“I’ve never heard him talk about stopping. I think Aldo has been at it for a long time, in a very continuous time. I think Aldo could take a vacation and feel that motivation to return. I already talked to him, but he wants to end the UFC contract as soon as possible.”

Full Interview (In Portuguese) HERE