Chad Mendes earned more in Conor McGregor’s promotion than he did facing him for a UFC title

Chad Mendes fought Conor McGregor 11 years to the day before this weekend’s UFC 329 card.

There was loads of speak about McGregor’s preparations heading into his long-awaited return to the Octagon on July 11.

Max Holloway can have dismissed his activity being a bonus, but how ‘The Mac’ will take care of such a protracted break stays an enormous unanswered query.

While the Irishman has had a protracted time to take into consideration fighting again, back in 2015, Mendes had just ten days to organize for the most important star in the game.

Can Conor McGregor 🇮🇪 overcome a five-year layoff to beat Max Holloway again?

Chad Mendes reveals Conor McGregor fight wasn’t his biggest profession payday

At UFC 189, Conor McGregor stopped Chad Mendes within the second round to develop into the interim featherweight champion.

The American was chosen to step in and replace the injured Jose Aldo on short notice, with Frankie Edgar also being in contention to face ‘The Notorious’.

Mendes recently said that loads of positives got here from him getting this bout despite it not going his way.

Nevertheless, he revealed on The Bohnfire that it being the most important payday of his profession wasn’t one among them, with that coming in BKFC, the promotion McGregor part owns.

“No, my bare knuckle fights were,” Mendes said. “Truthfully, that’s the one reason why I did those fights. That was an exciting little bonus there at the tip of my fight profession.”

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Mendes stopped competing in MMA back in 2018 before returning to combat sports for 2 BKFC fights in 2022 and 2023.

The previous featherweight title challenger beat Joshuah Alvarez to establish a giant clash with Eddie Alvarez, which he lost via split decision.

When sharing his thoughts on McGregor’s return on July 11, Mendes used his own comeback to share insight into what this process is like.

“I’d been gone for a very long time and I used to be actually form of second guessing myself after I got in there for the bare-knuckle but I feel in the event you get in there and also you do the best things for enough time, loads of it comes back,” he said. “I don’t think all of it does. I don’t think in my two bare-knuckle fights, like obviously after I was at the height of my UFC profession, it’s just a special beast.”