Mendes seeks UFC featherweight title in enemy territory
A night before boarding a flight to Brazil for the biggest fight of his career, Chad Mendes dug into his DVD collection for a movie released the same year he was born.
Mendes, 26, watched the classic Rocky IV, a film with obvious parallels to the situation the unbeaten featherweight faces tonight in the main event of UFC 142 in Rio de Janeiro.
In the movie, Rocky Balboa goes to Russia to face the big, bad Ivan Drago.
Mendes will challenge phenom Jose Aldo for the Brazilian’s 145-pound belt in front of what will be a hostile crowd.
“It’s not going to be a surprise for me,” Mendes said. “Honestly, I can’t understand what they’re saying, so it’s not like I’m going to hear anything specific. Obviously, I’ll hear boos, but I’m ready for that.
“I know what I have to do and what I’ve come here to do, so I’m just going to do it. I truly believe there is no better way to prove I am the best 145-pounder in the world than to come here and beat him in his own backyard. I’m excited for it.”
Like Drago, Aldo has been viewed as unstoppable since arriving in World Extreme Cagefighting. He knocked out his first six opponents to become champion, and that belt became an Ultimate Fighting Championship title when the organizations merged last year.
Aldo has made two title defenses in the UFC, but Mendes is looking to end that run. He won’t have to look far for someone who can tell him just how good the champion can be.
Former WEC champion Urijah Faber, a friend and teammate of Mendes, will work his corner. Faber spent five rounds getting punished by Aldo in the Brazilian’s first WEC title defense in April 2010.
“Urijah has helped me quite a bit,” Mendes said. “Even though mine and Urijah’s wrestling is a completely different style, he’s gone in there and felt his strengths and felt the areas where he’s not as strong. He trains with me every day, and he knows where my strengths and weaknesses are, too.”
Aldo isn’t so sure Mendes is that different from Faber.
“Chad’s style of fighting is very similar to Urijah Faber’s,” he said. “The height, the wrestling, the way they move. They are very similar. Mendes is younger than Faber, but it’s basically the same type of fight for me.”
Mendes (11-0) will have to perform much better than Faber did against Aldo to take the belt away and finally accomplish a goal.
He knows all too well the pain of falling short. Mendes dreamed of winning a state wrestling title in California but fell short when he finished third as a senior at Hanford High School, just south of Fresno.
He then hoped to rectify that with a national title in college, but after an unbeaten senior season at Cal Poly, he lost in the national championship match because of what he calls an officiating blunder for which the referee later apologized.
“All that has motivated me and pushed me to the next chapter of my life, which is becoming world champion,” he said. “That moment is now, and I really feel like I’ve prepared for this my entire life. Both mentally and physically I’m at my peak. This is where I want to be, and I feel very confident and ready for this fight.”
The card headlines the UFC’s second event in Brazil, which has become a booming market for the organization. The nation will be the site of the first international edition of “The Ultimate Fighter” television show, which begins filming soon. One of the coaches will be Vitor Belfort, who fights today against Anthony Johnson.
“My next step might be determined already with TUF Brazil, but I’m not looking past Anthony Johnson,” Belfort said. “Anthony is certainly a big fighter, but size isn’t everything. The king of the jungle is the lion, not the elephant.”
Johnson will be as big as ever. He is moving up to middleweight for this fight after struggling throughout his career to make the 170-pound welterweight limit. Even 185 pounds proved to be an issue at Friday’s weigh-ins, as Johnson came in at an astronomical 197.
Belfort agreed to go through with the fight as long as Johnson weighs in at 205 pounds or less at 2 p.m. today.
The pay-per-view card will air live at 7 p.m., with the undercard broadcasting live on FX (Cable 24) at 5.
Contact reporter Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5509. Follow him on Twitter: @adamhilllvrj.