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Making his Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship debut over the weekend, Chad Mendes had a night to remember as he scored an impressive knockout win over Joshuah Alvarez.
Coming away with a victory wasn't the only thing Mendes had to celebrate. Alongside his performance, the fighter claimed to have made more money in his one BKFC fight than he ever made in the UFC.
During an appearance on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, the 36-year-old revealed that his purse for the BKFC bout trumps anything he has earned throughout his seven-year career with the UFC, including the Conor McGregor bout.
"Yeah, it's true [I made more than my time in the UFC]. Including Conor. Close to that, but yeah, more."
The American then expressed his gratitude towards the sport and told the host how much enjoyment he had doing it.
"I feel blessed to finally have an opportunity like this to go in there and do something that I find as fun as it is, and doing something I love and getting that amount of money to do it."
Chad Mendes continued, stating he has two remaining fights on his BKFC contract. Despite still being contracted to the UFC, the Team Alpha Male representative was nothing but thankful towards the MMA promotion for giving him their blessing to compete outside of the octagon.
Check out his entire interview on The MMA Hour below:
Will Chad Mendes return to the UFC?
Although 'Money' Mendes hasn't fought in the UFC since his loss to Alex Volkanovski in 2018, an MMA comeback could be on the cards.
Whilst conversing with Ariel Helwani about his successful first fight with BKFC, Chad Mendes opened up on his current situation. He claimed he still has a further three bouts with the UFC.
"Ultimately, like I said, I'm still under UFC contract, I still have three fights on that deal... It's so awesome to see them doing that [allowing him to fight for another promotion], I mean, I honestly expected a 'hell no'."
As he is still technically an active fighter on the roster, we could potentially see the 145er return to the cage and compete in the featherweight division in the near future.
