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Three-time UFC featherweight title challenger Chad Mendes still has fights left on his UFC contract, but isn’t very interested in returning to the octagon anytime soon.

Having been away from the UFC since losing to future champion Alexander Volkanovski in December 2018, Mendes spoke with MMA Fighting following a grappling win over Diego Brandao at ADXC 5, and discussed the possibility of putting on MMA gloves again.

“I don’t know. I still I’m under contract with the UFC though,” said Mendes, who challenged Jose Aldo twice and Conor McGregor for UFC titles in the 2010s. “I think I still have three or four fights on that last contract that I’ll just never fight, so I can’t fight MMA anywhere anyways, which I really don’t have any desire to do it, but I was able to do the bare-knuckle boxing and I can come do these grappling events anytime.”

Mendes fought twice under the BKFC banner, knocking out Joshuah Alvarez in 2022 and then losing a split decision to Eddie Alvarez a year later.

“[UFC] would have to pay me a lot of money [to fight again], honestly, and they’re not willing to do it, so no,” Mendes said with a laugh. “Honestly, at this point in my career, I have zero desire to cut any weight. I usually walk around like 175 [pounds]. Unless it’s like big money, it’s not really anything at this point I want to do. I love competing and I absolutely hate cutting weight. If it’s something that I can compete, make some money, have fun and not have to cut weight, sign me up, I’m all for it.”

“I got nothing planned as far as any other competitions,” he added. “I keep saying I’m retired — I left the UFC in 2018, but I started doing bare-knuckle the last two years and my last fight I said I was done. The first one I said I was done, then I ended up coming back and fighting Eddie Alvarez, and then I said I was done again. We’ll see, but I don’t have anything locked up. I mean, I got two little girls at home and a wife and multiple businesses that I’m trying to blow up and make it successful. There’s a lot of time that gets snatched up from all that. It’s honestly hard to put in the amount of time that I actually really want to. I’m the type of guy that wants to train and be 100 percent prepared going into any type of competition because I absolutely hate to lose, so it’s hard for me.”

Mendes was originally slated to grapple against Kevin Lee at ADXC, but Brandao stepped in as a late-notice replacement. The Team Alpha Male representative said he “didn’t have a ton of time” to prepare for the match as he had to split his attention between growing his other businesses, but still won. Mendes is open to competing again for ADXC if the opportunity is interesting, but would appreciate a proper camp next time.

“His wrestling was a little bit better than I was expecting,” Mendes said of Brandao. “I figured I’d be able to control top position a little bit better, but he did a good job of not staying in any bad position. He would explode out, get back up to his feet. We basically just had to turn it into a takedown clinic. And there was a few submissions I attempted that I saw for a split second, but he’s strong and just I wasn’t able to get it done. All in all, I felt it felt good. That’s the first time I’ve competed in any grappling in like four years, so I felt good to get back home.

“I like going against wrestlers better. I have NCAA top-level wrestling, so when I have somebody that’s OK engaging in wrestling and is there to wrestle, I feel great. I was actually expecting Diego to pull guard more and not want to stand up with me, but he was allowing me to do the snapdowns and that stuff gets you tired if you’re not used to it, and he let me do that throughout the whole match. I don’t think it would have been any more difficult, I actually would have probably enjoyed having somebody that was there mixing in more wrestling. We’ll see for next time. Either that fight with AJ [Agazarm] sounds good or somebody else maybe even in the UFC.”

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Israel Adesanya is widely regarded as one of the best middleweights in UFC history, but don’t expect former opponent Sean Strickland to sign any petitions to keep him on that list.

This past Saturday, Adesanya suffered a second consecutive loss for the first time in his MMA career when he fell by rear-naked choke submission to Dricus du Plessis in UFC 305’s main event. That fight came almost one year after Strickland dominated Adesanya over five rounds to claim the middleweight title in a stunning upset.

Despite those losses, Adesanya is still a highly revered former champion, but Strickland just doesn’t understand the hype around “The Last Stylebender.”

“I have an unpopular opinion, you guys aren’t going to like it. I just don’t think Izzy’s that good,” Strickland said on the Verse Us podcast. “So let me tell you why. Like, going into [UFC 293], I’m like, ‘I’m going to beat the f*ck out of you. You watch anime, you suck, I’m going to f*ck you up.’ Everybody is like, ‘Why would you say that about Izzy?’

“When he fought Kelvin [Gastelum], I think Kelvin sucks. Everyone’s like, ‘Izzy’s this and that.’ I’ve sparred Kelvin so many times, where I’m like, you kind of had a close fight with Kelvin — like, you’re not that f*cking good. You fought f*cking [Paulo] Costa. Costa was scared shitless of you. You f*cking blew on him, he fell asleep. Izzy’s not that f*cking good.”

Strickland said he spent significant time training with Gastelum when both fighters worked out of southern California, and ultimately clarified his feelings toward the TUF 17 winner.

“I love Kelvin. Kelvin is a standup guy,” Strickland said. “When I say you’re not that good, I’m talking about 90 percent of the [UFC] roster. I’m talking about the 10 percent of the f*cking most elite guys, that’s what I’m talking about and you’re not in that.

“When [Adesanya] fought Kelvin, I was like, ‘You let Kelvin have that close of a fight with you?’ If I fought Kelvin, Kelvin wouldn’t even touch me. It would be one of those fight where you’re like, ‘I just want this thing to f*cking end.’”

Strickland clearly didn’t see himself as an underdog heading into the fight against Adesanya and he proved that with a lopsided decision win.

He had a similar feeling about Adesanya heading into the showdown against du Plessis at UFC 305 after watching some training footage from his camp in New Zealand.

“I watched the highlight of his training and Dan Hooker, who I like, is just f*cking rag-dolling him on the ground,” Strickland said. “Rag-dolling him. Dan, he is a savage, but I will smoke you in wrestling and I will smoke you in wrestling for five rounds.

“The fact that you are taking this f*cking middleweight, world champion, and you’re just beating the living f*ck out of him everywhere.”

While his opinion on Adesanya as a fighter was clearly never very high, Strickland also believes he may have altered his future by beating him so decisively in September 2023.

The fight came a few months after Adesanya finally vanquished his greatest rival in Alex Pereira, and Adesanya ended up with Strickland as an opponent mostly because du Plessis was nursing an injury following a win over Robert Whittaker in July.

Adesanya was an overwhelming favorite, but Strickland took it to him for 25 minutes.

Strickland can’t help but wonder if that played at least some part in Adesanya’s eventual downfall against du Plessis at UFC 305.

“I think I f*cked up Izzy when he lost to me,” Strickland said. “I think that f*cked his head up a little bit. He was like, ‘This white trash motherf*cker missing half his leg comes and walks through me without struggle.’ I think that f*cked him up. I think that f*cked him up a decent amount. Not only that, but I did it from such an insulting way. Like, I was making fun of his f*cking life.”

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A women’s flyweight tilt is set for UFC’s return to Madison Square Garden.

Multiple people with knowledge of the promotion’s plans confirmed to MMA Fighting that a matchup between Viviane Araujo and Karine Silva takes place at UFC 309 on Nov. 16 in New York. MMA Junkie first reported the booking.

Araujo looks to get back to form and bounce back from a decision loss to Natalia Silva at UFC Vegas 85 in February. “Vivi” has dropped three of her past four fights, but did earn a decision win against past title challenger Jennifer Maia at UFC Vegas 81 this past October. The No. 13 ranked flyweight in MMA Fighting’s Global Rankings makes her 12th walk to the octagon.

Silva enters her biggest fight to date riding an impressive nine-fight win streak, including a 4-0 start to her UFC run. In her most recent outing, “Killer” earned a unanimous decision win over Ariane Lipski at April’s UFC Vegas 91 event.

Damon Martin contributed to this report.

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UFC Vegas 96 takes place this Saturday at the world’s most famous APEX, headlined by a middleweight matchup between Jared Cannonier and Caio Borralho, and Jed Meshew is here to break it down, plus break some news about the pod.

With Conner Burks moving on from MMA Fighting, Jed takes the reins to talk about this week’s card. Can Jared Cannonier fight off Father Time and Caio Borralho? What about Angela Hill and Tabatha Ricci? And does Neil Magny have one more veteran lesson to teach Michael Morales? Plus, Jed explains what’s next for No Bets Barred. (Hint: we’re not going anywhere!)

All that and more on this week’s episode.

Tune in for episode 99 of No Bets Barred.

New episodes of the No Bets Barred podcast drop every Wednesday and are available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you find your favorite podcasts. The latest episode can be heard below.

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UFC fighter Casey Kenney was arrested on Aug. 16 on a multitude of charges stemming from an alleged domestic violence altercation.

Phoenix Police officials confirmed to MMA Fighting that Kenney was arrested by Phoenix Police Fugitive Apprehension Detectives on Aug. 16 at 12 p.m. local time. He was booked on charges including kidnapping, aggravated assault (strangulation), and assault. He has since been released from custody.

Maricopa County court records show Kenney faces a total of six charges — a class 2 felony for kidnapping and a class 4 felony for assault/strangulation — and four misdemeanor charges. The harshest charge is the class 2 felony, which comes with a potential prison sentence of a minimum of four years in prison and up to 12.5 years in prison if convicted.

In July, Phoenix Police confirmed an incident that was first reported on Instagram by the alleged victim’s mother who accused Kenney of domestic violence.

In the report, police noted that they located an “adult female victim with some visible abrasions reporting a domestic violence assault. The female was treated by paramedics and interviewed by investigators. No contact was made with the suspect at that time. This case is still active.”

Maricopa County court records obtained by MMA Fighting on Wednesday revealed a probable cause statement with details surrounding the alleged altercation that led to Kenney’s arrest. The probable cause statement is listed below:

“Between the dates of 7-21-2024 at approximately 11:00 p.m. and 7-22-24 at approximately 12:14 a.m. while at the single family residence located at [address redacted], [suspect] Casey Kenney committed kidnapping, aggravated assault by strangulation and assault against [victim] Jasmine Mendez by repeatedly striking, slapping, biting, headbutting and choking [victim] Jasmine for several hours resulting in abrasions to Jasmine’s lip and discoloration to Jasmine’s arms and petechiae to Jasmine’s neck.

“Furthermore, during the 13 hours at Casey Kenney’s residence, Jasmine was incapable of escaping the residence due to Casey routinely grabbing hold of Jasmine and holding her in place during her attempts while threatening to cause more physical harm. Casey Kenney advised Jasmine Mendez that if anyone shows up he will shoot them and if her mother shows up he will shoot her in the head. Jasmine Mendez stated she desires prosecution in this matter at this time.”

There’s a status conference scheduled on Kenney’s case on Aug. 22, with a preliminary hearing set for Aug. 26.

The 33-year-old fighter hasn’t competed since 2021, when he suffered a loss to Song Yadong at UFC 265. Kenney started with the promotion back in 2019, and while he’s still listed on UFC’s website, his status says “not fighting.”

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Ronda Rousey was only two fights into her MMA career when she signed with Strikeforce. Soon after, she became one of the faces of the sport and helped usher women into UFC.

It’s been documented many times over that UFC CEO Dana White famously said women would never fight in the octagon, but Rousey became the game-changer that altered his vision for the promotion. But all the way back in 2011, Rousey was just an up-an-coming fighter hoping she could make enough of an impact for someone like White to notice her.

Looking back now, Rousey admits she felt a responsibility to get White’s attention, especially with the knowledge that women were potentially on the cutting block after UFC purchased Strikeforce.

“People forget how fragile that situation was and how last-minute I was able to get us in,” Rousey told Chris Van Vliet. “Strikeforce was the only organization that was really showcasing women and that was because of Gina Carano, because her dad was involved with the Nevada Athletic Commission and was able to sanction fights for her and all these things.

“When she was gone, Cris Cyborg’s pumped to the f*cking gills with steroids. No one wants to watch that cheating ass bitch. Everything just tanked. The division was dying. The UFC bought Strikeforce and it was assumed they were just going to absorb all of the male talent that they liked and fold the whole organization, because that’s what they did with PRIDE, that’s what they did with WEC, that was their business model. So there was a matter of time.”

Prior to Rousey’s arrival, Carano was undoubtedly the biggest star in women’s MMA, but she effectively left the sport in 2009 after she suffered a first-round TKO loss to Cris Cyborg. Her departure from MMA didn’t stop Strikeforce from promoting women’s fights, but Rousey knew UFC buying the organization was going to potentially change everything.

From that moment forward, Rousey made it her mission to get attention by any means necessary, and her devastating finishes combined with her penchant for the dramatic whenever she touched a microphone helped her become a superstar.

“I was the first woman signed to Strikeforce since it got bought by Zuffa, and I was brought in to replace Gina Carano because she was supposed to come in for a comeback but she wasn’t medically cleared to come back for her match,” Rousey said. “So she pulled out and they signed me to fight that same chick, Sarah D’Alelio. So I knew the clock was ticking.

“It was just a matter of time before they closed the whole thing and there would be nowhere that would showcase women’s MMA, so I had that much time to make sure that Dana [White] couldn’t go a single day without seeing my name somewhere. The rest is history.”

Even after White decided to promote women’s fights in UFC, Rousey still didn’t feel like she was standing on solid ground.

At the beginning, women only had one UFC division and it was headed up by Rousey along with her considerable ability to draw a crowd. Even after UFC committed to a deeper roster for women and multiple divisions, Rousey still wasn’t sure what would happen if she just decided one day to walk away.

“Once women were brought to the UFC, [Dana] said, ‘This is an experiment, this is to see how it goes,’” Rousey said. “It got to a point where we had to see how it would go without me because it was so dependent on me.

“Whereas, I think if I retired undefeated and left, I don’t know what it would be like. Because they’ve already brought in the [145-pound] division and closed it. They’re not against closing divisions.”

These days, UFC promotes three different women’s divisions, and while no female fighter has reached stratospheric levels of fame like Rousey, there’s plenty of women’s talent at the top of the sport.

Rousey issued a reminder to the current crop of UFC fighters — male and female — that they all share a responsibility that goes beyond just training hard and showing up to compete.

Part of the reason she was able to convince White to bring her and the women’s division into UFC was because she commanded so much attention. Rousey believes more fighters need to take notice that their job goes so far beyond just fighting.

“I think one thing people don’t understand now as fighters — and the ones that do understand it do extremely well — it’s like, you have to promote your fight as hard as you train for it,” Rousey said. “A lot of people feel so secure in their position that they can just show up and fight and they should get everything thrown at them. It’s not the company that promotes you. You shouldn’t be expecting the company to spend all this money to promote you. What are they going to do? Make more commercials? You have to go out there and promote yourself. You have to go out there and be a character and make your fights into a story, and the things that I learned from pro wrestling.

“Before I even got into there, I was trying to bring that into women’s MMA, and I think a lot of them forget they’re not supposed to just be athletes but entertainers. It’s not something you do on the side. It’s something you do equally as hard and put just as much effort and time and focus into. A lot of people just think of it as a bother or something they have to do because the company makes them do it. That’s why you see some people that are absolutely incredible and no one outside of MMA has ever heard of them.”

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At the Floyd Mayweather vs. John Gotti III press conference, the two stars will answer questions from the media Wednesday.

The Floyd Mayweather vs John Gotti III press conference is expected to begin at 2 p.m. ET.

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Dana White is taking the heat for the UFC’s promotional scrubbing of former heavyweight champ Francis Ngannou.

Ahead of UFC 305 earlier this month, the promotion’s Countdown show showed a clip of Israel Adesanya speaking at the event’s pre-sale press conference, saying that opponent Dricus du Plessis discredited him and Kamaru Usman. However, the actual line said at the presser included “the three kings,” and included Ngannou — but those things were left out of the clip, which led to speculation about if the UFC was trying to erase Ngannou from the history books after making the choice to leave the UFC and sign with PFL.

White was asked about it at the press conference and said he wasn’t aware, but he’d look into it. According to Kevin Iole, who asked the question, White called him and realized that had happened, and also saying the onus is on him.

“My production team are a bunch of rock stars and they are truly f*cking awesome,” White told Iole. “I make it so hard on them sometimes with some of the crazy shit I say and it’s tough. When you asked me about that, I didn’t know anything about it. But someone was editing that and made a conscious decision, thinking it was the right thing to do, that that’s what we would’ve wanted, what I would’ve wanted.

“I didn’t know about it and that was nothing that ever came across my desk. I’m in charge of everything production related, so at the end of the day, the fact that it happened falls on me 100 percent. It’s my responsibility and I accept it. Blame me for that. I put them in such a tough spot sometimes saying all this crazy shit, it’s hard for them.

“Whoever was editing it, they thought that was the right decision and did what they thought I wanted. That’s not what I wanted and had I known that, I would have not authorized that. But that’s on me. Totally on me. I already called Israel Adesanya and apologized for it.”

Adesanya spoke about it prior to his submission loss to du Plessis at the UFC 305 media day after a social media clip of the omission went viral.

“You can’t erase Francis’ legacy in the UFC,” Adesanya said. “It’s part of what we’ve done. It’s forever in history, in stone. So trying to whitewash it or just not talk about it is silly.

“I know he’s fighting for the PFL right now, but it’s still history. You can’t just turn a blind eye to it. I’m sure they’ll fix it eventually. This is how business goes with the UFC.”

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Dana White cannot believe Merab Dvalishvili would do something like that.

On Tuesday, Dvalishvili sustained a small cut above his left eye during training which required stitches, and immediately went on social media to post about it. Just 25 days out from his upcoming bantamweight title fight against Sean O’Malley at UFC 306, Dvalishvili insisted that the small injury will not impact his training and won’t force him from the bout.

“Everything is good my friends. It’s happening all the time. This is nothing. I’m getting stitched up and make sure I can continue training, tonight, tomorrow, all week. I feel great. O’Malley is in big trouble. This little cut is only going to make me stronger.”

Despite Dvalishvili’s insistence that this won’t effect anything, White was nevertheless, flabbergasted that he would ever do this in the first place.

“The whole world knows about Merab’s cut, he posted it,” White said in his media scrum following Contender Series. “Our guys are so dumb it’s next level unbelievable. All the stuff I talk about boxing, what I will give boxing, when something happens in a camp, let me tell you what, it does not leak. Our guys can’t f*cking wait to throw it up on social media. It’s a small cut. It’s no big deal, but obviously needed to be posted…

“And why the f*ck would you want [O’Malley] to know that?! It is next level stupid. Some of these guys are so stupid it’s mind-boggling. It’s unbelievable.”

O’Malley also had his own spin on Dvalishvili’s cut.

After White’s comments, Dvalishvili posted another video showing he was already back to training with the stitches and reiterating that he still planned to fight at UFC 306.

White may have had a little extra ire for Dvalishvili’s post due to the high stakes surrounding UFC 306. Dubbed Riyadh Season Noche UFC, the event takes place in Sphere in Las Vegas and is being promoted as “the greatest live sporting event of all time.” As such, the event is allegedly an extremely costly endeavor, and having something happen to the main event has White understandably nervous.

“No. [Knocks on wood]. No. I don’t even talk like this,” White said when asked about a possible backup fighter for UFC 306. “Don’t you dare throw the jinx on me. The cost of doing this production if we have to change anything is f*cking devastating.”

UFC 306 takes place on Sept. 14.

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Jon Jones is going to fight Stipe Miocic, no matter what.

Jones won the UFC heavyweight title by submitting Ciryl Gane at UFC 285 17 months ago. He was then scheduled to defend it against Stipe Miocic at UFC 296 before suffering an injury that forced him from the bout. Since then Jones has been recovering, with the intention of returning against Miocic later this year, despite the emergence of interim champion Tom Aspinall.

Understandably, Aspinall appears to be increasingly frustrated by Jones’s insistence on fighting Miocic, who is 42 years old and has not competed in over three years, instead of unifying their titles, even suggesting earlier this week that Jones “there’s no way on Earth” Jones will ever fight him. And Jones isn’t really doing much to dissuade that notion as on Tuesday, he took to social media with a series of posts about Aspinall, his legacy in the sport, and his steadfast resolve to fight Miocic.

“Looks like Tom displaying that amazing UK wrestling. My focus is on stipe, he actually wrestled division one. Best heavyweight of all time as of right now. Maybe Tom will go on and beat Stipe’s record one day, right now I’m focusing on goat things.”

“Haha man, you guys have been really begging me lately. Is the heavyweight division really that boring without me?”

“The beautiful thing about being my position is, I’m not defined by one fight. Most of you grew up watching me win.”

“I guess there was a video that resurfaced recently of me saying that after Stipe, Francis was the only fight I was interested in. That video was recorded well over a year ago. That was recorded before I got injured, before there was an intern champion crowned. I had already voiced that I wasn’t interested in any more randoms. Now magically I’m ducking a fight that’s never been negotiated or discussed at any table that matters. Lol I’m sticking to my plans, Jon Jones jumps for no one. How many belts does one need? How many times do I have to break my own record?”

“There are fighters literally all over the world that think in the back of their mind I can beat Jon Jones. There will be no statues of you. Go out and win more, make your name greater, that is the only way you do it.”

“I’m 37 years old now, I’ve kicked everyone’s ass. My job is to finish strong and make an amazing movie. Go join Tom Brady, Floyd Mayweather, and all the other retired bad asses.”

“It feels good to know on the way out your sport was literally begging you to continue. You never know, maybe the UFC will offer me a deal I can’t refuse.”

“Interesting, from my point of view it seems like an amazing way to finish this good work I started so long ago.”

While this was all happening, Aspinall was also posting, putting up a skit on his Instagram mocking Jones for ducking the fight with him.

“Where are you Jon Jones Is it time for retirement?”

Aspinall also responded directly to Jones’s comments, clearly interpreting them as Jones saying he will retire following the Miocic fight and taking shots at Jones for insisting on fighting Miocic.

“Wonder if it was that video or my fighting that retired him? Please make sure you pass me the belt on the way out of the octagon if you beat Biden.”

While no official date has been set, it is widely believed that Jones will face Miocic at UFC 309 in Madison Square Garden.

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