Advertisement

For Chad Mendes, a few seconds, a fence grab, and a long time to dwell on a loss

chad-mendes-ufc-164

The most controversial moment in the first fight between Jose Aldo and Chad Mendes happens fast – we’re talking two, three seconds, tops – but it’s impossible to miss. It’s also impossible to determine just how much it impacts the fight itself, or how much that question even matters.

It happens in the final minute of the round in the main event of UFC 142. Mendes (16-1 MMA, 7-1 UFC), having used the third of three failed takedown attempts to secure a back bodylock position, attempts to hoist the UFC featherweight off his feet in order to slam him to the ground. Here’s where Aldo (24-1 MMA, 6-0 UFC), looking not unlike a toddler trying to avoid being carried off to bed, latches on to the chain link with his right hand in a bold and obvious act that can only be called cheating.chad-mendes-jose-aldo-fence-grab

Referee Mario Yamasaki sees it, of course, because how could he not? His response is to run around to a different angle, point at the offending hand, and offer what sounds like a warning. Naughty Jose. Don’t do it again.

But seconds later, now with Yamasaki already on high alert, Mendes attempts the maneuver again. This time it works, sort of, and he actually gets Aldo to the mat for a few precious seconds. Then Aldo is back up and Mendes is losing his grip after another attempted slam, and the next thing you know the champ has spun around and delivered a perfectly timed knee directly to the forehead of the takedown-minded Mendes. Punch, punch, punch, and it’s all over.

It is, once you really go back and look at it, a pretty meaningless fence grab, as far as fence grabs go. Out in the open space of the octagon Mendes had already tried and failed on three separate takedown attempts in the first four minutes of that opening round. Even after the grab, when Mendes maintained the exact same positional advantage, he still couldn’t get Aldo down for more than an instant, and even that was a struggle.

You look at that fight, and you see a challenger who is intent on getting the fight to the floor and a champion who is casually adept at thwarting him. The fence grab is clearly against the rules, but it’s also probably totally unnecessary. As much as you can’t ever say what might have happened if one little butterfly had flapped its wings here or there, even amid the controlled chaos of a cage fight, everything about that fight suggests that, one way or another, Aldo was going home with that belt.

So say you’re Mendes now, getting ready to do it all again at UFC 179 on Saturday night, in the same city where you suffered your last and so far only professional defeat. Say you’re even able to be honest enough with yourself to admit that the first fight probably didn’t turn on a quick grab of the fence. Now what are you supposed to do?

It’s a difficult question, and one complicated by Mendes’ own tortured history with championship opportunities. This is the same guy whose college wrestling career ended with a runner-up finish in the 2008 NCAA National Championships. Though Mendes would later say that this disappointment played an integral role in convincing him to take up MMA immediately after college, he also admitted that his loss to Ohio State’s J Jaggers still eats at him.

“I’ll still catch myself sometimes at night replaying the match in my head while I’m lying there in bed,” Mendes said in 2012, just before his first fight with Aldo. “Next thing I know I’m all tensed up and I have to make myself relax.”

If that’s how it felt to lose a college wrestling match, you can imagine how it’s been since he lost his shot at a UFC title. It’s been just over 33 months since that loss to Aldo. That’s a lot of chances to lose sleep thinking about it, about those failed takedowns, even about those fingers in the fence.

Whatever peace he made with it, or motivation he took from it, he’s likely to need it all in Rio on Saturday night. If he can’t capitalize on his second chance, there are bound to be a lot more sleepless nights to come.

For more on UFC 179, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.

Be sure to visit the MMA Junkie Instagram page and YouTube channel to discuss this and more content with fans of mixed martial arts.

More News