Former UFC title challenger Chad Mendes is coming out of retirement and making his return to active competition, announcing he's signed a multi-fight deal with the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship promotion.
Mendes made the official announcement on the latest episode of the JRE MMA Show with UFC commentator Joe Rogan. BKFC confirmed the signing themselves with posts across their social media platforms. Mendes last competed in December 2018 at UFC 232 where he was defeated by current UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski via a second-round TKO.
The longtime Team Alpha Male member went 9-5 in his 14 career Octagon appearances and said the following to Rogan about signing with the bare-knuckle boxing league. He also revealed his debut is set for October 22 in Chandler, Arizona but that there is no opponent yet for the bout. Mendes the longtime featherweight contender, will also move up to 155 pounds to compete in the BKFC lightweight division.
“I just signed a big contract – I’m coming back to fighting,” Mendes said (h/t MMAJunkie). “But I’m not coming back to MMA. … I’m coming back to boxing. I want to try something different. I think we’re going to throw some bare-knuckle in there, bro – just mix it up and get real crazy. This is something that’s kind of been in the works for probably a year now.”
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