Chad “Money” Mendes was promised a title shot at UFC 133. He was 10-0 at the time, and titleholder Jos é Aldo was running through opponents like water. He had just defeated Mark Hominick in stunning fashion, and Mendes looked to be the only potential threat to his title. Aldo declined the bout at UFC 133 due to a myriad of injuries sustained while fighting Hominick.
Mendes was undeterred, and to stay active took a fight with Brazilian Abu Dhabi Combat Club submission wrestler, Rani Yahya. When Aldo came back from injury, Mendes was booked, so he was signed to defend his belt against Kenny Florian. Needless to say, Chad Mendes’s title shot has been a long time coming.
His Mixed Martial Arts career started fast and took off even faster. He began his career fighting under the reputable Tachi Palace Fights banner. He went undefeated, the highlight of his run being his knockout of Steven Siler, a future competitor on The Ultimate Fighter, and at the time, riding a nine-fight win streak. Mendes took out the 21-fight veteran in just 44 seconds.
After dominating all of his opposition in TPF, he was invited to compete in the UFC’s sister promotion, World Extreme Cagefighting. Mendes continued to use his wrestling base to suffocate his opponents, as he always had. Mendes, a former All-American wrestler at Cal Poly, finished his senior season 30-1 and placed second in the 2008 NCAA Championships at 141 pounds.
In his first fight in the WEC, he scored six takedowns en route to a unanimous decision win over Eric Koch. He followed up that impressive performance just one month later with a first round guillotine choke against Anthony Morrison. Mendes showed some impressive striking in his clash with Morrison. They weren’t knockout caliber strikes, but they set up his takedown nicely, and kept Morrison guessing.
His most dominant fight in the WEC came four months later in August against Cub Swanson. Mendes showed that he had some power in his hands with an early shot that rocked Swanson. He followed Swanson to the ground, and the two fighters eventually made their way back to their feet. After a short exchange, Mendes scored another takedown to end the round.
The second began much the same as the first. Mendes continued to use his striking to set up his monstrous takedowns. He wasn’t able to hold Swanson on the ground for very long, and did scattered damage. In the third, Swanson opened up his arsenal of submissions, almost catching Mendes in an omoplata. Mendes closed out the final round using his striking, and taking Swanson to the mat when he felt threatened.
Mendes didn’t do a lot of damage to Swanson, and he wasn’t able to keep Swanson on his back, so how can this be considered dominant? Mendes was able to execute his takedowns at will, whenever he wanted, and he completely neutralized Swanson as any kind of threat. Even when on the ground, Mendes was able to shrug off submissions, and on the feet, Swanson looked to only still be there because Mendes allowed it.
As the UFC did not have any weight classes below 155 when Mendes was coming up, the WEC was the outlet for smaller fighters to make their way into the big leagues when the UFC inevitably merged with the WEC. That merger happened in October of 2010, and all WEC fighters were transferred to the UFC’s roster. Mendes had one final exit fight in November, a unanimous decision win over Javier Vasquez, before his transfer to the UFC was official.
Since becoming a UFC fighter, Mendes has kept his undefeated streak alive, and is still a perfect 11-0, with four finishes to his credit. After a win over submission specialist Rani Yhaya, Mendes finds himself heading to his opponent’s native Brazil to challenge for the UFC Featherweight Championship.
As if the fight itself wasn’t tough enough, fighting in Aldo’s backyard will prove to be difficult to say the least. The last time the UFC was in Rio de Janiero in August of 2011, the HSBC Arena sold out to capacity of 14,000 in mere minutes. UFC President Dana White said that easily over 300,000 people were trying to get tickets to the event. There were plans in the works to book a soccer stadium to hold UFC 142, but plans fell through, so Aldo and Mendes will square off again at the HSBC Arena, to a sold out, fanatic Brazilian crowd.
The atmosphere and the crowd will be one thing to have to deal with, but Jos é Aldo will be another. With a four-inch reach advantage, and a one-inch height advantage, as well as being the vastly better striker, Mendes has his hands full. As if that wasn’t enough, Aldo is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt, and has shown his prominence on the ground before with a 90 percent takedown defense. With all this, it would be easy to say Aldo will dominate Mendes in yet another title defense, but I don’t believe that to be the case.
Mendes uses his striking well to set up his takedowns. I don’t expect him to look for the takedown until about the two-minute mark. Mendes wants to keep Aldo guessing, much as he did against Vasquez when he executed a front flip and landed on him, and when he did a somersault to escape Vasquez’s standing back control. He has expressed his desire to develop his standup, and its functionality in wrestling. He isn’t looking to be a knockout artist, but to find a way to meld his striking game to better his already incredible wrestling.
This one will stay very close, with no competitor having a distinct edge until its end. Mendes will work his ground game, stifling Aldo’s submission attempts, much like he did to Swanson. I see this fight playing out similar to Mendes’s fight With Swanson, except Aldo will be more of a force on the feet, landing combinations, and utilizing his hard leg kicks to wobble Mendes. I don’t see Mendes getting eight takedowns, but the two fighters will be up and down quickly. Mendes keeps it close, until Aldo defends his title with a late, fourth round knockout.
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