Former Bellator MMA champ fires back at Jose Aldo for recent comments

Recently, interim UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo has continued to make headlines for his ongoing saga with the UFC following the announcement that Conor McGregor vs. Eddie Alvarez would headline the UFC’s inaugural show in New York, UFC 205, rather than return to featherweight for a rematch with Aldo.

Aldo was quick to request that the UFC brass release him from his contract so he could retire and move to another professional sport. UFC President Dana White was quick to shut down Aldo’s request, informing him that the promotion would not be releasing him from his contract.

Throughout the course of the dispute, several other promotions reached out to Aldo in hopes of opening dialogue and securing a marquee fighter. Former Bellator MMA champion Patricio Freire even went as far as to suggest that Aldo make the jump to Bellator MMA so the pair could fight, however Aldo insisted that he wanted to retire from MMA, not move to a “b league”.

That didn’t sit too well with Freire, who fired back at Aldo in an interview with MMAJunkie:

“By attacking other organizations, not only is he closing those doors, but also speaking poorly of several high-level fighters, including his teammates and friends, Eduardo ‘Dudu’ Dantas, and John ‘Macapa’ Teixeira,”

“Names like Phil Davis, Rory MacDonald, and Henderson have all migrated to Bellator,” he said. “And other high profile fighters in touch with the organization are all being offered much higher salaries than by the UFC.”

“Aldo should remember he was once a WEC fighter, an organization said to be inferior to the UFC and that everyone thought he wouldn’t be able to beat any top lightweights if they chose to drop down,” the ex-Bellator champ said. “He seems to forget that the current UFC lightweight champion was once the Bellator champion too. Things change.”

“I’m starting to think that McGregor was right in regards to several things he said about Jose Aldo – more specifically when he said he couldn’t stand to be there anymore,” Freire said. “I don’t think Aldo’s being smart by expressing his dissatisfaction against the organization he represents in this way.”

While a meeting between Aldo and the UFC brass this week reportedly went well, the interim featherweight champion has maintained that he is done with fighting.