In January 2012, at UFC 142, Team Alpha Male Featherweight and No. 1 contender Chad “Money” Mendes traveled down to Brazil to put his undefeated record on the line in hopes of taking out the Brazilian champion Jose Aldo, and bringing back the title to Sacramento.
Unfortunately for Mendes, he wound up being on the wrong end of a highlight reel knockout courtesy of Jose Aldo’s knee. With the bitter defeat motivating him, Mendes tore through the Featherweight division over the following two years, knocking out four straight opponents before decisioning the ever-tough Nik Lentz last December.
Mendes is a completely different fighter than he was at UFC 142, and has earned his rematch for the title with Jose Aldo in two weeks at UFC 179. Prior to his second crack at UFC gold, Mendes sat down with Jon Anik on a recent episode of UFC Insider to re-watch his first title fight against Aldo, and explain what went wrong.
Check it out in the video below:
