Chad Mendes was candid about why he decided to retire from fighting.
After winning his first bare-knuckle boxing match, Mendes returned to BKFC for a second bout on Saturday night. The former UFC title challenger was matched up against Eddie Alvarez, who was making his promotional debut after parting ways with ONE Championship.
Mendes and Alvarez treated the fans to a five-round war, which left both fighters bloodied and swollen. Once ‘The Underground King’ had his hand raised, ‘Money’ announced that he would be stepping away from combat sports. During the BKFC 41 post-fight press conference, he explained his decision by saying:
“I’ve been going back and forth with this. Obviously I retired from the UFC back in 2018, and I honestly was done. I’ve been pouring my heart and soul into a few businesses and just spending the quality family time that I love doing.”
Chad Mendes continued by saying:
“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 can just pour my heart and soul into and be successful, but, man, that was one hell of a fight.”
Watch Chad Mendes at the BKFC 41 post-fight press conference below:
Chad Mendes was going to retire before the fight against Eddie Alvarez was offered
Chad Mendes had teased retirement after winning his BKFC debut. With that said, he never made an official announcement before the fight against Eddie Alvarez was confirmed. During the same post-fight press conference, Mendes revealed that he wanted to retire, but the matchup with Alvarez was too intriguing. ‘Money’ had this to say:
“I had no desire [to fight], but something like this came up, and obviously the pay is really d*mn good, and it’s something that’s new, which kind of excited me, so I did it. I was done after that first one and then they dangled somebody like this dude [Alvarez] in front of me, and I’m like, ‘All right, f*ck, I’ll do one more, this could be the retirement fight, but, I was honestly kinda just taking it fight by fight, I said that before too before the fight.”
Mendes fought in the UFC for the last time in December 2018, losing against Alexander Volkanovski. After three years without a fight, he signed with BKFC and won his promotional debut with a fourth-round knockout. The California native is retiring with a professional MMA record of 18-5.
