The sport of MMA is growing in Asia as the fans will witness South Korean promotion Road FC hosting an open tournament with a whopping cash prize of $1 million! The former pound for pound kingpin Jose Aldo has been invited to compete in the 32 men lightweight tournament that is to take place in South Korea, Japan and China.
However, the $1 million prize may appear out of reach for the interim UFC featherweight champ as he is still under contract with the UFC. Aldo has requested his contract to be terminated but White has turned the request down stating that they respect their featherweight champ and have plans for the Brazilian.
Aldo expressed his disappointment in not being granted his title unification bout with Conor McGregor and announced to retire a few days back. On the other hand, the Road FC has been on a quest in search of world’s best fighters for the event and reached out to Aldo as one of the potential competitors.
The tournament will consist of 5 rounds up to the finals.
One of the former UFC featherweight fighters has already enrolled his name in the list- Tatsuya Kawajiri. The lucrative prize money is already attracting a lot of attention thus gaining the interest of various talented fighters.
Despite the lucrative amount on the line for the tournament, the cash bag for the every other fight in the tournament will be negotiated with the participating fighters individually just like any other regular fight.
The tournament is to commence in the spring of 2017 with 32 men to participate. The promotion has hosted 35 events so far and has withdrawn 40 million viewers for their last event on sports channel- CCTV5.
With the million dollar prize money on the line, the promotion will certainly gain a lot of recognition and also contributes to the growth of the sport in Asia.
Aldo, on the other hand, as per recent reports has expressed interest in competing against Anthony Pettis for his next fight in the UFC. Confirming that he is still interested in staying with the company despite his earlier requests for his contract to be terminated and his musings about quitting the sport altogether.
