'Sad' Jose Aldo feels 'underpaid' by UFC and may have to 'kill his opponent' to get due recognition

Stop me if you've heard this one before.

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) featherweight titleholder Jose Aldo is not a big fan of the promotion's pay scale, and recently told the gang at ESPN Brazil (via Yahoo Sports) that he feels "underpaid" for the amount of revenue he's helped generate in recent years.

His words:

"Certainly, I feel underpaid. Talking in numbers is difficult. A fighter dreams of reaching a level where he makes good money. Today I have other thoughts, I have been around the world, I have great insight into this. At the same time that they give business to us, they could improve [pay]. We bring millions to the organization's events. I'm a very marketable fighter, and everyone likes to see me fight. We see a heavyweight non-champion and non-title challenger earning a lot more than us. This situation makes us a little sad, but I have to keep fighting -- we can't lose our focus. I do not know, man. We kill ourselves in training, we give the best of us to get out there and give a great show, break records for the UFC. We give the maximum, but do not have that due recognition. Now, I do not know what to do, do I need to get inside the cage and kill my opponent?"

"Junior" also believes the language barrier may be a contributing factor.

Aldo (24-1) will defend his 145-pound title against Chad Mendes in a featherweight championship rematch at the UFC 176 pay-per-view (PPV) event in August. As a point of reference, the Brazilian banked $240,000 ($120,000 to show, $120,000 to win) for defeating Frankie Edgar at UFC 156 back in Feb. 2013.

Not too shabby.

But Rashad Evans and Alistair Overeem made more, which is significant because both "Suga" ($300,000) and "Demolition Man" ($285,000) were defeated in non-title bouts on the same card Aldo was headlining.

Thoughts?