SCRAPP! FIGHT MAGAZINE
January - 2016
39
the loss, he headlined an event
against another tough oppo-
nent in Ricardo Lamas who
many expected to be a tough
challenge for him. Mendes had
a beautiful performance with
another highlight finish in the
first round. Everything looked
promising for Mendes, as it
seemed he was just about one
more fight away from getting
another shot at the title when
he stepped up on three weeks
notice to take on McGregor for
the interim featherweight title,
in what would be the biggest
fight of his career.
For almost two full rounds,
Mendes executed a perfect
game plan and was control-
ling the fight by using his supe-
rior wrestling advantage. With
about 20 seconds left in the
second round McGregor was
able to make it back to his feet
and put Mendes away strikes
as the round ended. Although
this defeat was a huge setback,
he still put up a competitive
fight and can debatably say if
he were to have a full camp
that he could have came out
victorious.
On Friday night, in the middle
of one of the biggest weeks
in the promotions history, and
on the day before UFC 194,
Mendes had the perfect fight to
get him back into title conten-
tion with a win against former
champion and #2 ranked fight-
er Frankie Edgar. If he were to
have gotten an impressive win
over Edgar, and with talks of
McGregor moving up to light-
weight, Mendes would have
been the logical opponent to
compete for the title. But with
a devastating loss and another
fight where he was finished, a
lot of different questions must
be asked.
One thing that must be con-
sidered is if it is possible for
Mendes to make the weight cut
to get down to bantamweight.
Although he is somewhat small
for the featherweight division
to begin with, he has a ton
of muscle that makes it hard
for him to even cut weight to
reach the 145-pound limit. If
Mendes is able to lose some
of that muscle and cut down
to bantamweight, he can do
some serious damage and pos-
sibly make another run at the
title.
Another option for Mendes is
something that Urijah Faber
stated at the UFC194 post fight
press conference of taking a
little time off to recuperate
and then contending for the
title still in the now very open
featherweight division. With
talks of 145 being too difficult
of a weight cut for McGregor,
it is rumored that he is going to
move up to lightweight, leav-
ing the featherweight division
wide open. With Aldo being
the only champion the UFC
had ever known at feather-
weight and having been unde-
feated dating all the way back
to 2006, one must wonder
how he’ll respond following
such a detrimental knockout.
The devastating knockout has
been blowing up all over social
media, and you have to won-
der if he can ever bounce back
from such a heartbreaking loss.
That leaves a lot of questions
now about not only the divi-
sion, but where Chad Mendes
stands in it.
Mendes has to sit down with
his camp at team Alpha Male
and recuperate what needs
to be done in order for him
to bounce back from this loss.
At 30 years old, Mendes is no
longer the rising prospect he
once, but is now an established
fighter under the UFC promo-
tion who needs to find out
what needs to be fixed in order
for him to still be a threat for
title contention.
Possible Next Matchup:
Mendes has already fought
most of the top tier of the
featherweight division, so you
can expect his next opponent
to be someone inside the top
10 that he hasn’t faced yet. A
good possible matchup that
would not only be an exciting
fight, but a bout that Mendes
can really make a statement
with a good performance
against, and that is Jeremey
Stephens.
Stephens, who is also coming
off a loss at UFC 194 against
Max Holloway, will also be in
need of a meaningful match-
up. Another possible opponent
who is not booked for a fight
yet that would be a very in-
triguing matchup is Cub Swan-
son, who has been taking time
off since his two back-to-back
loses to Frankie Edgar and Max
Holloway.
