C. Mendes (photo) was defeated by Aldo in 2012. Photo: Josh Hedges/UFC
The dominant victory of TJ Dillashaw about Renan Barao at UFC 173, last Saturday (24), will serve as inspiration for the next challenger for the featherweight belt. Chad Mendes, Dillashaw's training partner, hopes to repeat his friend's success in the fight against José Aldo.
Mendes, who was already defeated by Aldo in 2012, will try again to win the title on August 2, in the main fight of UFC 176, in Los Angeles (USA). “TJ managed to do his part, and now it's my turn on August 2nd. That's the kind of opponents we need. I will try to do the same thing against José Aldo”, said Mendes, in an interview with the Combate channel website. “We deciphered them through TJ along with Duane Ludwig and all his techniques and now we have to keep working with that, and take everything we learned into my training to bring another belt to our team.”
“Money”, as he is known, described the emotions he went through during last Saturday’s fight. “It was probably the most exciting fight I’ve ever seen in my life. I almost cried four times during the duel. My heart was racing and my hands and legs were sweating. It was incredible,” he celebrated.
“It was probably the best performance I’ve seen. Renan Barao He's a fantastic fighter, and TJ made him look like a beginner by dominating every round and knocking him out at the end. I'm very proud of him. TJ showed that he has unbelievable knockout power in his hands. I trained with him for this fight, and we did some training sessions sparring and, in the five minutes that the training lasted, he punched me around 400 times. I knew that if he stepped into the Octagon with the goal of achieving something really big, he would do it in devastating fashion. And that’s exactly what happened”, continued the American.
Mendes, 29 years old, has 16 wins and one defeat on his professional record, against Aldo. Since losing to the Brazilian, in Rio de Janeiro, he has won five consecutive fights – the last of which was against Nik lentz, in December of last year.
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