Chad Mendes Announces Un-Retirement, Transition to Bare Knuckle Fighting

do you want to talk about that thing that you might be doing yeah, let's do it We've got a big enough a microphone in front of you. It's it you just get you there you go like that So tell me what this is what is this announcement? What's going on? So I just signed a big contract, bro I'm coming back to fighting. Oh, yeah In the great words of TJ Dilla Shaw daddy's home bitches But I'm not coming back to MMA man I know that I've been seeing a lot of people's comment and they're kind of hoping that I am I'm coming back to boxing man. I want to try something different now You come back to regular boxing or you're gonna do bare knuckle boxing I think we're gonna throw some bare knuckle in there, bro. Just mix it up get real crazy now I've seen you you're working out a lot You're hitting a lot of meds like were you doing that before or did you just have this did they contact you like? How did this come about so we've I mean this is actually something that's kind of been in the works for probably a year now um, you know, it's just For me look I just turned 36 and me and we were just talking about still having that that desire Like when I when I left the UFC, I was just about to have my first baby You know, we had I had a lot on my plate. There was obviously I had just lost but even going into that fight. I Had started a company was working on a few other companies and there was a lot that I was more excited about Then competing at the time and I mean obviously we know that this sport is so brutal Like you if you don't have a hundred percent mindset into it, you're gonna get fucked up, you know, and it's For me, I was like look dude. I'm gonna take some time off I'm gonna or just or just end it here I have other things going on and we'll see kind of what happens in the future So I decided to retire talked it over at the wife and that was you know what the game plan was so Fast forward two and a half years later You know, obviously I still have that desire and obviously my baby girl is bigger now we are pregnant with a second and I just started thinking like man, I'm getting older I don't want to get into my 40s and then basically still have this desire to compete and be like it's too fucking late You know, so I'm like, let's let's start talking to some of these guys I've always wanted to box, you know coming off of wrestling my style even in the UFC was boxing and wrestling We're probably my two favorite things to do like I absolutely loved boxing sparring when I would be training through training camps and then obviously wrestling too, but I always wanted to try and compete in some type of boxing competition and so Bear knuckle actually reached out to Faber and was like, hey, do you think Mendez would ever be interested in this and I'm like I mean, I probably never thought about anything bear knuckle before but you know boxing definitely would be fun Let me ask you this about bear knuckle Why do they have those like really thick wraps that go all around the hand but just expose the knuckle? Mm-hmm. I'm in and it's not mandatory on anybody like I see some guys where they just tape their hand, right? But I think a lot of people do that for wrist support, right? Like, you know, obviously you punched like a bag with no Support in your wrist and a lot of the times it folds but didn't Joe Riggs get his eye cut? Because of one of the when he fought Lombard didn't the rap actually scrape his eye I heard that yeah And it's you know, I think that this is an organization that's still very brand new and there's probably still working all these kinks out but I Mean, I'm probably gonna tape the shit out of my wrist For the reason of support, but yeah, I think that's something that's you know It's definitely a possibility of getting cut on that stuff. Do you know when you're fighting? October 22nd Oh Jesus, it's coming up October 22nd an opponent no opponent yet But it's a Chandler, Arizona is what they're saying. What wait? 155 okay, so you're not gonna have to cut no I said look dude. I like we just talked about yeah, I don't want to cut much anymore, you know, obviously I'm getting older It's harder. It's gonna be hard as hell to make 45s, but If I can go 55s, I would greatly appreciate that and they're like no that's actually better You're gonna have more opponents to choose from so I think that's what we're gonna do How many rounds they're five five two minute rounds, which I think why are they doing two minute rounds? I don't know why they're maybe just I'm not sure exactly what their thought process on that But I mean, I love that. I'm a explosive athlete. Obviously, I think this I'm pretty much built for this style of fighting, you know, I can get in there. I can be fast explosive quick Powerful and you know, it's a quick round I don't have to you know pace yourself pace myself grind out those five minute rounds I can just get in there and knock someone's head off and And be good so that's gonna be a big difference for you, right going from five minute rounds to two minute rounds Yeah, I've been hit mitts for two minute rounds and I'm like, I feel like I just started right, right I could go, you know, I feel good. Are you training two minutes? Are you doing longer so that you feel like two minutes is nothing? We're gonna mix both in and and my thought process on that is Even when I was training for five minute rounds, we do five minute rounds I don't we would do more of them But I want my body my mind to get used to exactly what it's gonna feel like because of that reason like holy shit It's already over right, you know, so I need to know like You know Basically where I'm at in the round, you know and and I want to get used to that But I'm definitely gonna do some longer stuff to you or we'll do you know, like ten two minute rounds So you're basically just doing more of the exact same thing So where it's you know, you hit those five and it's like she I could go another another full fight here So how long did you have to think about this before you decided to do it? Well, like I said, it's been a whole year process kind of going back and forth My wife absolutely hates it You're fucking nuts, but You know married a fighter. I know and that's what she's got she's got a remember that right but uh No, man, it's it's definitely something we sat down I had to had to figure out because it's you know, it is something that's pretty brutal and my argument to her was this like a UFC gloves maybe a quarter of an inch of leather half inch of leather over my knuckles I mean the concussion is not gonna be much different if anything I think we're obviously dealing with a sharper object hitting you so it cuts are probably gonna be a lot more prevalent But as far as the concussion of you know getting hit You know, I don't think it's gonna be much different I also don't have to worry about a baseball bat head kick going whipping through and cracking me in the dome either or someone big knees out yeah, huh, so you know, there's a lot of other things in the MMA game that I think are a lot more dangerous, but You know for me, it's just It had to make sense. Obviously the numbers they were thrown out in the beginning didn't make sense for me I have you know other businesses that are doing really well right now that are are Something that I can do for the rest of my life and not have to ever fight But I have that itch to get in there competes though And I might as well do it now while I'm still in my prime and I have that opportunity Because like I said when I start hitting 38 39, you know maybe these opportunities have come and gone and nobody even really cares to see me fight anymore or You know, I just don't feel good enough to get in there and do it So it's interesting how they're going after so many former UFC fighters. I mean, it's smart, right? These people already famous You know, they got Paige Van Zant Hector Lombard You now who else is over there? I know Leonard Garcia who else Rochelle She just fought Paige Oshevich Oshevich. Yeah. Yeah, sorry. No, no, no, I didn't say So they're doing a smart thing where they're getting popular fires or who are you know? known for UFC fights mostly and then just introducing the Bare knuckle world to them and I know it's growing right? I mean, it's it's People are paying attention now. They're watching a lot of fights. Yeah, I know Forbes just did a write-up saying it's the Fastest growing combat sport in the world right now, you know, and why I always thought that like it was weird that you could else Elbow somebody in the face you could head kick somebody with a bear shin You can knee him in the nose with no pads, but your hands are covered. Yeah with a pad I was always like but I used to say like why don't we just go bare knuckle because first of all to make Grappling more realistic like submissions you could sink in chokes and stuff much easier But then I saw Chris Liebman versus Who is it Dakota? What's his name? Anyway, Chris Liebman's face got destroyed. It was crazy the cuts and I was like, oh maybe bear knuckles pretty fucked it is and I think that's you know, you're gonna have a lot of blood which Probably makes it pretty entertaining for a lot of people. But yeah cuts are Definitely gonna be there. I mean Like you said elbows though in the UFC like oh yeah up against the case last Somebody or even off off their back and you're on top drop and elbows I mean those cut probably more than knuckles I would imagine but yeah I think you get hit a lot more with punches than you do with elbows in a fight and that's probably Where more more cuts would come in but how many of these things you gonna have? Man, so so here's the situation. I'm still under UFC contract. I still have fights on my UFC contract. So You know, there still is a possibility that I come back and maybe I want to do one or two more UFC fights after this We'll see I'm gonna get in there and I'm gonna see giving you a green light to do this Is that how it works? Uh-huh. And so which is super cool. The use. I mean they basically could have just said fuck you Compete and they kind of said fuck you to George st Pierre when he wanted to fight Oscar de la hoya. Well, that's because it's Oscar. I know but come on That's a great payday for George. I know I know And in fact some of that stuff was in the works for me Like we taught I was my name was thrown in there with Oscar really? Yeah, which would have been freaking cool just to say you get in there and box a guy like Oscar But yeah, they they wanted nothing to do with any of that stuff. So, you know, yeah Oscar do not get Dana and Oscar do not get along. Yeah, what is the source of that? You know don't know but I always see them talking shit to each other. It's so dumb. Yeah, but so dumb Yeah, like you know why that's what's happening. I don't know but luckily the payday I was talking about getting with them is what I'm getting in bare knuckle now and You know, obviously it would have been cooler to say that I'm boxing Oscar de la hoya Catch new episodes of the Joe Rogan experience for free only on Spotify watch back catalog JRE videos on Spotify including clips easily seamlessly switch between video and audio experience on Spotify You can listen to the JRE in the background while using other apps and can download episodes to save on data cost all for free Spotify is Absolutely free. You don't have to have a premium account to watch new JRE episodes You just need to search for the JRE on your Spotify app go to Spotify now to get this full episode of the Joe Rogan experience