Former UFC fighter Chad Mendes is one of the few fighters who fought both Jose Aldo as well as Conor McGregor in their primes in championship fights. However, for him between McGregor and Aldo, there is a clear winner for the tougher opponent. And it was one of the two men left him ‘p**sing blood’ once he returned to his hotel room following the fight.
In a recent interview with MMA fighting, Mendes was asked about a few scenarios in the UFC fight now.
One of them happened to be Aldo’s recent return and win over Jonathan Martinez. While it may have shocked many, it did not come as a surprise at all to Mendes who went to praise Aldo. Calling Aldo a beast and his toughest fight he said,
“Everyone always thinks it is Conor but it wasn’t. Aldo was next level, I think that took 10 years off my life I would say. That night I got back to the hotel I was pissing blood. He is a beast man, I am not surprised he came back and completely dominated like that.”
Chad Mendes explains why Jose Aldo, not Conor McGregor, was his toughest opponent:
“I think [UFC 179] took about 10 years off my life. That night I got back to the hotel, I was pissing blood.”
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He went on to add that he believes that Aldo has what it takes to compete at the highest level even at 37-years of age. The former UFC fighter stated that he believes Aldo is someone who puts everything into the fight game and would not ‘half-a*s’ his return.
Mendes is confident that Aldo would do well against the likes of Sean O’Malley or Merab Dvalishvili if there was a belt on the line. However, he did not share the same optimism about McGregor.
Mendes joins long list to doubt McGregor’s return
In the same interview, Mendes was asked about McGregor and if he thought ‘The Notorious’ would return to action. The 39-year-old famously took on McGregor in a short notice fight at UFC 189 for the interim featherweight belt.
The fight was put together after Jose Aldo pulled out due to an injury. ‘The Notorious’ stopped the fight in the second round to taste UFC gold for the first time and has not looked back since. However, that was back when dinosaurs still walked the earth.
Now his former opponent believes that McGregor is done with the sport and only teases a return to stay relevant. Mendes is one of the many UFC fighters that believe that we will never see McGregor compete inside the octagon ever again.
