Jump to
Former UFC featherweight title challenger, Chad Mendes, officially called it a career from combat sports following a thrilling bare knuckle boxing war with Eddie Alvarez at BKFC 41 back in April of this year. Now enjoying retired life, ‘Money’ Mendes caught up with Bloody Elbow to discuss taking the gloves off, both in terms of bare knuckle, as well as stepping away from competition. The 38-year-old also had a few thoughts as to how the UFC could improve their product, and even one clear name that could bring him out of his third retirement.
Alongside his fighting career, Mendes also detailed his lifelong skin battle with Psoriasis, the embarrassment he faced, and how teaming up with Trace Minerals has dramatically improved his quality of life over the past couple of years. Check out the full interview below.
Chad Mendes interview video
Epic BKFC war with Eddie Alvarez
- Mr. Chad Mendes! You called it a career from combat sports after a wicked war with Eddie Alvarez in a bare knuckle BKFC bout. First off, I have to say thank you for that because what a banger! Second, how was that not scored a draw?
“Ha ha. Dude, I don’t know. I mean, in all honesty, I thought worst case it was a draw. I thought I’d maybe even eked it out, but that’s what happens when you leave it in the hands of the judges. But man, Eddie’s so damn tough. I mean, I knew going in it was going to be tough to just straight up put this dude’s lights out and be done.”
“I thought, like I said, worst case it was going to be a draw, but I think it was supposed to go into the sixth. They were telling us to get ready for a sixth round, but my eye was completely closed up, and my coach was like, ‘He can’t see. I don’t know if we’re going to continue.’ So I don’t know if that changed anything there, but it’s all good, man. Eddie’s a super cool dude. So at least if that’s going to happen to anybody that I was going to fight, it was a guy like that. “
UFC rounds are too long
- Bare knuckle boxing has gained a ton of traction lately, do you think that has more to do with the lack of gloves, or the two minute rounds?
“I think it’s a mix of both. I mean the no gloves is interesting. It’s like something that we don’t really see unless it’s like a straight up street fight, you know. And so I think that intrigues a lot of people, but then also the pace. I mean, you can’t go slow in a two-minute round. It goes by so fast.”
“I feel like the UFC would be so much more action-packed, especially full MMA like that, if they made the rounds shorter. It’s hard for anybody on Earth, even you know, the best guys to go balls to the wall for five, five-minute rounds. Or even three, five-minute rounds. Five-minutes straight, a lot of guys have to pace themselves. You have to pick and choose when to explode, when to use those bursts.”
“But in those two-minute rounds, man, it’s like you can go hard the whole time. You’re tired going into that break, but you get back and then it’s a two-minute quick round. I don’t know, I think that definitely makes it a lot more exciting. But yeah, I do think the no glove thing is something special there. It’s definitely intriguing to everybody.”
Chad Mendes curbing the competition bug
- How are you curbing the competition bug?
“Man, I get a lot of that same feeling from all the big hunts that I do. Like game planning and, you know, jumping online, studying maps and like looking at terrain and, figuring out spots to basically get in and go after these things at. Man, that stuff like it definitely keeps my mind and that competition itch, I think fulfilled most of the time. Being able to fill my freezer and live off that throughout the year, that’s what I live for. ”
One name can bring Chad Mendes out of retirement
- Conor McGregor said that you hit the hardest out of all of his past opponents. Do you ever think of running that one back?
“Ha ha nice! Oh yeah, 100%. I mean, whether it’s MMA or bare knuckle boxing, I mean, I would love to do some bare knuckle boxing with Connor. I think that would be fucking awesome… He was at my fight coaching and yelling, all kinds of shit during mine and Eddie’s fight Sitting there, chugging his whiskey… If they if they ended up signing that dude for a fight, and he would take it, that’s one I would 100% do.
Lifelong battle with Psoriasis
- It’s Psoriasis awareness month, and to be quite honest I never really knew how debilitating it was until I saw your Instagram post. What was that like training, let alone competing while fighting that also?
“Dude, it was awful. So I started getting Psoriasis when I was little. I remember probably about five or six years old when I first started getting that get on my shins. It’s something that’s there all the time. It’s not like eczema where it kind of flares up and goes away. There are times that it’s way worse than others, but for me it’s plaque Psoriasis, so it’s there like permanently.”
“I’ve done the before and after pictures on my legs. Trying to train and grapple and rubbing that on everybody’s faces and everyone’s disgusted… aw dude it was so embarrassing. So I’m trying to wear the tights and leggings at all times. So, not fun.”
Trace Minerals
- I saw you teamed up with Trace Minerals for a more holistic approach to combatting Psoriasis with the Chad Mendes Wellness Pack.
“I’m two years into it now adding, beef organs into my diet. So I don’t really take a synthetic multivitamin anymore. My multivitamin, my daily is the Trace Minerals beef organ, beef liver, which all those nutrients in there are bioavailable for our bodies. So a lot of the synthetic like one-a-days or whatever those are, you piss out like 90%. You’re body’s not using them.”
“I haven’t eaten vegetables in almost two years. I eat the beef organs, and the liver, the organ supplement. I drink purified water, and I use the Trace Mineral drops in it to add electrolytes back in. Because when you’re not eating a ton of carbohydrates, like excess carbs, you have to put those electrolytes in because your body pumps them through a lot quicker, so I’m doing that. The organs and the beef liver pills also. I’ll kind of mix the two together. This is the best I’ve ever felt in my whole life. “
**The complete Chad Mendes video interview is towards the top of the page, and contains much more Chad Mendes!
You know you can count on us for quick, consistent quality UFC coverage. Bloody Elbow is an independent, reader supported publication. Please subscribe to our newsletter to keep up with our best work and learn how you can support the site.
Join the new Bloody Elbow
Our Substack is where we feature the work of writers like Zach Arnold, John Nash and Karim Zidan. We’re fighting for the sport, the fighters and the fans. Please help us by subscribing today.
About the author
