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Chad Mendes has successfully transitioned to bare-knuckle fighting, bagging an impressive win in his BKFC debut on Saturday.
Mendes faced Joshuah Alvarez in the promotion's KnuckleMania 2 event. 'Money' dominated the fight to pick up a fourth-round TKO victory over Alvarez on the night.
Chad Mendes scored multiple knockdowns in the fight in rounds two, three, and four, respectively. After Mendes dropped 'Famez' for the fourth consecutive time in round four, the referee stepped in to end the fight.
Check out some of the highlights from the KnuckleMania 2 fight below:
Mendes last stepped inside the octagon over three years ago at UFC 232 in December 2018. Back then, he faced reigning featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski. 'Money' lost via TKO in the second round and hasn't competed in MMA since.
Chad Mendes weighs in on potential octagon return
Ahead of his BKFC debut, Mendes claimed he's making more money from the fight against Alvarez than UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou did for his latest title defense at UFC 270. Ngannou bagged $600,000 for successfully defending his title against Ciryl Gane at the event.
While Mendes has successfully transitioned to bare-knuckle fighting and is seemingly content with the pay, the former UFC title challenger isn't completely ruling out a potential octagon return. 'Money' revealed that he still has three fights remaining on his previous contract but isn't happy with the pay he has been offered.
If he's to step inside the octagon again, Mendes said the promotion needs to re-negotiate the terms of a fresh contract with improved pay. In an interview with The Schmo, he said:
"If I ever came back to the UFC, we’d have to re-negotiate a contract cause I’m still at three fights left and it’s just not worth it to me to get back in there. If we ended up talking and renegotiated and it was worth it to me, I might think about it."
Check out the entire interview below:
Mendes currently holds an 18-5 record in his MMA career. It will be interesting to see if he makes a return to the UFC in the future.
