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I guess that idea wasn’t so “great” after all.
Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) featherweight champion Jose Aldo was the only active champion in the early days of the promotion to openly call for unionization, even tattling on UFC President Dana White for trying to silence him with money.
Then “Junior” inked a longterm contract with UFC and all that talk about quitting the sport quickly evaporated. But surely the Brazilian would back his combat sports colleagues if they tried to organize and form a fighter’s union, right?
Wrong.
“I think this is a horrible time to do that,” Aldo told the media (via MMA Fighting). “We see so many companies going bankrupt, people losing their longtime jobs, and here’s the UFC trying to make us work, trying to give us work. Look at all the money they’re spending. Look at everything they’re doing to get back and get us back into fighting.”
Someone should probably tell “Junior” about this.
Aldo, 33, was given a bantamweight title shot despite losing his 135-pound debut, likely because of his name value and track record inside the cage. No question the Brazilian is grateful for his opportunity, but what about fighters who make $10,000 to “get their asses beat?”
“I do agree that there needs to be some type of union and fighter pay needs to be discussed, but right now just look at the families that don’t know what’s gonna be tomorrow, what’s gonna happen to them,” Aldo said. “Here we are, we have a chance to work. We’ve made it this far. It’s hard enough to get here, so this is not the right time to do that.”
Whoever said “no man was an island” never met Jon Jones.
Aldo will have a chance to make history against top bantamweight contender Petr Yan at the upcoming UFC 251 pay-per-view (PPV) event, which takes place this Sat. night (July 11, 2020) on Yas Island — also known as “Fight Island” — in Abu Dhabi.