Chad Mendes describes emotions that led to combat sports retirement following BKFC 41
Former UFC featherweight title challenger Chad Mendes described the emotions that led to his combat sports retirement following his fight at BKFC 41.
Mendes took on former UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez in the co-main event of BKFC 41, and the fight was phenomenal overall. Both Mendes and Alvarez stood in the center of the ring for five rounds and slugged it out, with both men being credited with two knockdowns each. At the end of the 10 minutes, Alvarez was declared the winner by split decision after a back-and-forth fight. On top of that Mendes, announced his retirement from combat sports.
After initially retiring from the UFC five years ago, Mendes was lured out of retirement by an offer he couldn’t refuse from BKFC. After two fights in bare-knuckle fighting, including a knockout win in his BKFC debut two years ago and then this fight against Alvarez, Mendes announced that he is retiring from combat sports, describing to reporters his emotions.
“I’ve been going back and forth with this. Obviously I retired from the UFC back in 2018, and I was honestly done. I’ve been pouring my heart and soul into a few businesses and just spending the family quality time that I love doing. I had no desire (to fight), but something like this came up, and obviously the pay is really good, and it’s something that’s new, which kind of excited me, so I did it. I was done after that first one, but then they dangled somebody like this dude (Alvarez) in front of me, so I was like, ‘All right, I’ll do one more. This could be the retirement fight,” Mendes said (via MMAjunkie.com).
“I just don’t need to be doing this sh*t anymore. It’s fun, but I feel like at this point I’m just being selfish. I’ve got a solid family that loves me, and I’ve got other things in the works that I pour my heart and soul into to be successful at. But man, that was one hell of a fight.”
What were your favorite memories from the combat sports career of Chad Mendes?
