Last Saturday, South Korean promotion Road FC announced that they’ll be hosting a 32-man lightweight tournament. According to the burgeoning organization, the winner of this massive tournament will take home a whopping $1,000,000.
According to the folks over at BloodyElbow.com, this tournament will kick off in the spring of 2017, and will unfurl over the course of 5 rounds. These 5 rounds will be spread out over the year, and occur not only in South Korea, but also in Japan and China.
In anticipation of this massive event, the organization has commenced its search for top lightweight talent with which to fill the tournament brackets. Unsurprisingly, the tournament’s lucrative prize has already garnered interest from a number of top fighters.
The most notable of these fighters is UFC featherweight Tatsuya Kawajiri, who took to Twitter to call the event “the dream” (translated by BloodyElbow.com). And while this tournament is likely to attract interest from many other top-flight competitors in the coming days, Road FC is interested in one fighter in particular: former undisputed UFC featherweight champion and current interim champion Jose Aldo.
ROAD FC $1 million 70kg Tournament! We want Jose Aldo, we want the best fighters to contact us: RoadFC@RoadFC.com pic.twitter.com/VRgYamnPqv
— ROAD FC (로드FC) (@ROADFC) October 1, 2016
Aldo, of course, is firmly under contract with the UFC. Recently, however, the Brazilian great has expressed interest in being released from his UFC contract, as he is openly disgusted with the way the organization has been operating – particularly in the way they’ve been handling the career of Irish superstar Conor McGregor.
While it’s extremely unlikely that a star like Aldo is released from his contract to go compete for another organization, his enrolment in Road FC’s tournament would be massive. He is, after all, one of the greatest fighters of all time.
At the moment, it’s unclear which other fighters the South Korean organization has their eyes on, though they are undoubtedly given the free agent list a thorough comb. It does seem likely, however, that the tournament will be populated in large part by South Korean fighters, such as former One Championship titleholder Soo Chul Kim and recent UFC outcast Yui Chul Nam.
Do you think there’s any chance the UFC lets Jose Aldo join this tournament? Which free agents would you like to see enrol? Sound off, PENN nation!