While he is about to exhaust his
Ultimate Fighting Championship contract, Jose Aldo
isn’t interested in other MMA promotions — despite having lucrative
offers on the table.
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Aldo
announced his retirement following a unanimous decision loss
against Merab
Dvalishvili in August 2022 that snapped a three-fight winning
streak. “Junior” is now coming out of retirement to take on
Jonathan
Martinez in a bantamweight tilt at UFC 301
in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Saturday.
Aldo recently confirmed reports that the Martinez booking is the
last fight on his UFC contract, which he hasn’t considered renewing
yet. While Aldo expects his upcoming fight to decide his future in
the organization, the Brazilian is also considering a switch to
boxing.
“Yeah, this is my last fight on my contract,” Aldo told CBS Sports. “When I started talking to Sean
[Shelby] and Dana [White] back in January, we had talked about
signing a new deal. But I decided against it because I wanted to go
in there, I needed to show them, I needed to show myself and
everyone where I’m at, what I can still do and how I can still
perform. We have a lot of offers. We could have a boxing match
lined up pretty quickly if we wanted to do that as well. So I told
them, ‘Let’s wait, let me go in there and put on that performance
and then we’ll talk. After that we’ll see if we have a new deal or
not.”
In addition to various boxing offers, Aldo also claims to have been
offered massive paydays by rival MMA promotions. However, the money
won’t lure the former UFC featherweight champ away from the Las
Vegas-based promotion.
“We’ve been reached out by other organizations and offered big
million-dollar purses and things like that. But it’s really not a
matter of financial decision,” Aldo said. “I needed to have that
break. I wanted to pursue my dream of boxing, and now I’m coming
back. I never really thought of fighting anywhere else other than
the UFC. So, we just have to see where I’m at right now with this
fight and kind of see where I’m gonna go from there.”