Chad Mendes: 'I trained for Ricardo Lamas like it is a world title fight'

In 2012, an undefeated Chad "Money" Mendes lost via sudden and last-second KO in the first round to UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo, after the champion got away with illegally grabbing the Octagon chain link fence. By Oct. 25, 2014, Mendes was back in the cage to challenge Aldo once more, after winning five straight fights -- four by way of stoppage.

This time, Mendes stayed in the fight for five full rounds against Aldo. This time, the UFC's longest-reigning world champion was pushed closer to the brink of defeat than he had ever been before.

At the end of the UFC 179 main event, both Mendes and Aldo were battered, bruised, cut and worn. Still, it was Aldo that got the win, by way of decision.

This Saturday, Mendes returns to the cage for the first time since the rematch with Aldo, in a main event out of Fairfax, Virginia against fellow former title challenger Ricardo Lamas. While sitting down with us a week and a half before the Lamas main event, Mendes reflects on just how difficult his last battle was.

"That was a hard one," he admits.

"It was the hardest fight I've ever been in. It was probably the hardest thing I've ever done. I knew that it would be, going into the fight. I told myself that it would be. I made my mind up that it was going to be hard. So, I pushed harder than I ever pushed myself before, during training. I kept reminding myself of how hard the fight was going to be through the entire training camp."

For Mendes, the hardest hit was the emotional one, after losing to Aldo, again. Though the fight was physically hellacious, giving his all and coming up short was harder.

"I left my heart and soul in the Octagon," he tells us.

"That was tough, to lose. That was the hardest thing."

It isn't as though Mendes' body didn't hurt a great deal afterwards, either. "My shin and feet were so badly bruised from throwing kicks, checking kicks, getting my kicks checked," he remembers.

"Those were the worst parts, physically. I didn't get cut or need stitches. That night after the fight I couldn't even walk. I tried to sleep but I had to put my feet up on pillows because they kept on going to sleep."

The rematch with Aldo turned out to be just as brutal as Mendes anticipated it would be. Though he didn't get the result he wanted, "Money" learned some valuable lessons about himself -- namely that he has a deep well of toughness to pull from, when needed.

"There was never a doubt in my mind that I could fight that type of fight, but I had never had to do it before. I knew I could do it, and I just proved it to myself," he says.

Mendes has basically run through everyone he's ever fought, except for Aldo. In their first fight, he had some success but still lost quickly.

In the rematch, he wanted to take Aldo into deep and turbulent waters in order to win, though up until he did, Mendes had never himself been through that type of war, either. Learning what he did about himself actually helped Mendes blunt the mental trauma of losing, a bit.

"Honestly, getting knocked out in the first fight bothered me more. I took that so much harder. It was the first loss, so that is always something to deal with. But it was mostly that I'd trained so hard but didn't get to show what I could do. That's something that bothers me a lot more," he says.

Despite the tough second loss, Mendes did indeed show the world, and Aldo, that he was capable of so much more. As a result, the featherweight contender didn't lose any motivation to climb back up the ladder to earn another title shot.

"No, it definitely wasn't tough. I never lost motivation," he reveals.

"All in all, I am pretty proud of myself. I did what I said I would do in that I pushed Aldo in to deep waters. I learned about myself as well. My motivation was never lost. You win some, you lose some. The guys that do the best, the champions, they don't dwell on that stuff. In my mind, I just focused my time on getting back in there."

So, to train for Lamas, Mendes brought the same rigor and dedication that he did to his two title fights. When he looks at "The Bully," Mendes sees another world-class opponent, and that's all the motivation he needs.

"Ricardo is a tough guy. He's good everywhere," Mendes admits.

"He's got good stand up. He dropped a top guy with a jab so you know that he has power and speed with his hands. He's a good wrestler, he's got great submissions. He's got great ground and pound and top control. That's probably his strongest point -- getting on top and controlling them with elbows and heavy pressure.

"I'm definitely not looking past him. It's a tough fight. We prepared like we were fighting for a world title, again. It's like we're fighting Aldo, again. We trained just as hard."