BKFC has landed another former top UFC fighter for their roster. Today on The Joe Rogan Experience, Chad Mendes (18-5 MMA) announced that he was ending his retirement and that he had signed a deal with BKFC.
MMA Junkie also reported the signing. Mendes has signed a multi-fight deal with BKFC and he’s looking to make his debut in October. The former top UFC contender has said that he’s going to be competing at 155 pounds for Bare Knuckle.
The last time we saw Mendes was back in 2018 when he fought Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 232. Mendes had some bright spots in the fight, but was ultimately stopped by Volkanovski in the second round.
After the fight was over, Mendes announced his retirement from the sport. Mendes was 33 years old at the time, but he felt like he had nothing left to give in the sport and his passion just wasn’t there.
@ChadMendes WELCOME TO BKFC pic.twitter.com/gBIZ6e6Dp2
— Bare Knuckle FC (@bareknucklefc) August 4, 2021
New Journey with BKFC
Mendes had been through a lot with the UFC. He rose all the way to the top of the featherweight division and challenged for the interim title and the undisputed title a combined three times.
Unfortunately for Mendes, he went 0-3 in those fights. After he lost to Conor McGregor for the interim title, he was knocked out by Frankie Edgar. Shortly after the Edgar fight, Mendes tested positive for a PED and was suspended for two years.
He came back and won against Myles Jury before proceeding to the Volkanovski fight. Mendes had been posting on social media that he was getting the itch to compete again and he’s been doing a lot of boxing. Now, we know that he’s heading to BKFC.
BKFC has made some moves to try to get more mainstream MMA and Boxing stars over to the promotion. They’ve signed former UFC fighters like Paige VanZant, Rachael Ostovich, Artem Lobov, Joey Beltran and more.
BKFC has even had former boxing world champion Paulie Malignaggi compete under their banner. The signing of Mendes is just another move for BKFC to add more top talent to try and bring in more casual fans. It’ll be interesting to see what Mendes has left in the tank when he competes later this year.