Despite Lucrative Offers, Jose Aldo Not Interested in Fighting for Other MMA Promotions

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.

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.”