Mark Bell's Power Project - Power Project EP. 72 - Chad "Money" Mendes

Episode Date: June 18, 2018

American mixed martial artist, Chad "Money" Mendes is ranked #5 in the UFC featherweight Division. His MMA record is 17-4. Chad has a wrestling background, was a two-time PAC-10 champ, two-time D-I NCAA All-American, and attained a second-degree black belt in wrestling. Re watch the live stream: https://youtu.be/HDc12BBwVQ4 ➢SHOP NOW: https://markbellslingshot.com/ Enter Discount code, "POWERPROJECT" at checkout and receive 15% off all Sling Shots ➢Subscribe Rate & Review on iTunes at: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/mark-bells-power-project/id1341346059?mt=2 ➢Listen on Stitcher Here: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/mark-bells-power-project?refid=stpr ➢Listen on Google Play here: https://play.google.com/music/m/Izf6a3gudzyn66kf364qx34cctq?t=Mark_Bells_Power_Project ➢Listen on SoundCloud Here: https://soundcloud.com/markbellspowerproject FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell ➢ Snapchat: marksmellybell Follow The Power Project Podcast ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MarkBellsPowerProject Podcast Produced by Andrew Zaragoza ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamandrewz

You ever have that? You ever have a tall day? Oh yeah, I think it's the shoes you were wearing. Oh yeah, I'm not wearing any shoes today. I was deadlifting and just sometimes it's easier just to not have shoes. My dad has us do that too. You fight with no shoes on. Right? Might as well get used to it, right?

Yeah, and then is that a big change coming from a wrestling background? It was at first, but honestly all the guys get pissed off at me in the gym because I don't wrestle shoes on anymore, even when we're doing just straight wrestling practice. So like my defense is completely changed. I don't do a lot of the basic like sprawl all hit pressure, you know, and, and plant your foot, slide it out. It's all just

stinky leg. Now I bring the knee up and like slip my knee up and they're just like, what the hell? We can't even shoot Single eggs anymore. And I mean it's I don't fight with shoes on So why do I want to learn all the techniques and defense with shoes on so that's my mindset in it. Anyways, there's a huge difference between Peace between some of the martial arts that people end up Becoming accustomed to when they're young or trade that they learn wrestling. Right. The huge difference between that and getting into a cage and having, you know, in particular like UFC rules.

Right. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I think the biggest part of it for me was the way my body structure was. I mean, being a wrestler from age five all the way up through college i'm used to every doing everything bent over in wrestling stance so then when i came into the fight world i like had to stand straight up and now punches and kicks are being thrown in my head i'm like what the hell you gotta watch out for somebody kneeing you in the face if you're bent forward right yeah so and that was probably the hardest adjustment but uh i think you know a few weeks

into training a couple months into training, it definitely came along. I think I had my first pro fight three months into training, fighting. So it was, uh, do or die, I guess. What, uh, what made, what like possessed you, I'll say, possessed you to want to fight other people? Um, you know, I, I get asked that a lot. I know it's not, for me, it's not like, like I'm an angry person. I just want to beat the crap out of somebody. It's, competition i don't believe you for a second don't get me wrong there's sometimes there's people feels good sometimes like when i fought connor it felt

good to like elbow him in the face but um for me it's just competition i mean i started like i said started wrestling when i was five wrestled every single year i never took a year off from five all the way up through college the day after i graduated I moved up to Sacramento and moved into one of Faber's spare bedrooms and just started training but uh you know I think it was my freshman year um going into sophomore as a summer going into sophomore year uh Uriah he was big in the wrestling world as well he was wrestling at UC Davis um and he had just started fighting and my wrestling coach at cal poly would put on like a six week long wrestling camp up in tahoe every year and so you know all of us at cal poly would be the instructors and like counselors and stuff like that and then he would bring uriah in from davis because he had a good relationship

with him and faber was training for one of his fights it was one of his first ones and he kept hurting all the other wrestlers because he's doing jujitsu. You know, nobody knows that type of stuff. And so nobody wanted to work out with him. And he's like, man, I'm going to have to, like, go back. I've got to train for this fight. Nobody wants to work out with me. And I was like, I'll do it.

I don't really know anything, but I'll go with you. So we rolled jits and just kind of fell in love with it. He's like, dude, I think you'd be really good at this after you're done. So he's like, if you ever want to train, he's like, I'll, I'm starting a gym here in Sacramento. He's like, you can move up and, and start training until you, you know, get your feet under you and, and do your own thing. But so like I said, day after I graduated, moved up and the rest is history. Where are you from originally? I'm from Hanford, like, uh, central California. And then, um, take me back to that time.

What was that like to transition? Uh, what about like friends and family and stuff or, or girlfriend or whatever? Like, is people like, just, what are you doing, man? Like, you're going to go away. You're going to go to Sacramento and do what? Yeah. I'm going to fight like this guy's starting a gym and I'm going to become a fighter. People are probably like, what the, right.

What the hell? Well, I think at that time it was, there was so much buzz and excitement about the ufc because it was still in the in the new phase what year are we talking about like 2008 so you know the the the ultimate fighter show with with uh yeah the big fights that got everybody excited and you know those that already happened and or were you know right around that era And, you know, those that already happened and, or were, you know, right around that era. And, uh, you know, people were just like, oh man, you're going into the UFC. Like, so cool. And I'm just like, I don't know what the hell I'm doing. Like, I'm going to go compete. I'm going to try, like, I have a, have a degree in kinesiology. I'm going to try it. If I suck at it, you know, or just absolutely hate it, I'll go get a real job,

but you know, let's go test it out. And I ended up being good at it and thought it was pretty fun. So I ended up sticking with it. I think it's been almost 11 years now, 10, 10 years. What was, uh, Uriah Faber's gym like? Because, you know, uh, Uriah obviously is very highly successful now. And, uh, he's got a second version of his gym, but even the first version of his gym was, was pretty, was a pretty nice setup. What did that look like in those early days? That gym was a lot smaller than the one that we're in now. But it was basically, you'd walk in, you'd have a couple offices right there on the left-hand side. Downtown Sacramento, right?

Yeah, downtown. Yeah, I've been in there before. This is all mats, basically. Yeah, pretty much. Like, you walk into the right and it's all, heavy bags hanging and it's all like kickboxing mats. Yeah. We did a lot of our kickboxing classes and boxing classes out there. And then right in the center of the gym was a big boxing ring.

And then in the backside was all the grappling area. And then you had a tiny little weight area. Nobody really did their weight training, strength conditioning type stuff at that gym. We'd all go with Amadeo, but, um, it was over there for clients and stuff. But, uh, yeah, really small. We had a big team, uh, and the team was just getting bigger and bigger. So, uh, we eventually just outgrew it to where there just wasn't enough room for everybody.

People are, you know, bumping into each other, trying to spar and people getting injured. And, um, so, you know, Faber finally made the decision. It's time to upgrade. Right. That's what he did. We just moved off 65th and Folsom. I'm over there by Sac State. So do you miss some of those days? Obviously it's better to have more resources, but do you miss some of those days of like, it just being a little scrappier? Yeah. I mean, I'm always going to remember that as like my, my fight time. Like when I first started, you know, the team was a lot smaller than it is now, but it was just such a brotherhood. Like everybody was real close.

We did everything together. A lot of us, I don't know if you remember, uh, the block is what we would call it. Yeah. And Faber had two houses right next to each other. Then one of the other guys had a couple of houses next to each other, but all within like a hundred yards of each other. And all the fighters lived in there. So we, you know, one of the houses had a pool and a hot tub. And, you know, after fights, we'd, you know, all party.

Oh yeah. Parties, bring people back, chicks back from the clubs and the bars and stuff. And it would just be, you know, ragers after fights. But yeah, but, uh, good times, man. We, we just, everybody had the same mindset. Everybody was training and, and pushing each other. And, and then, um, you know, we are where we are now. Some of the guys have kind of split off and gone their own directions, moved out of state

and stuff. But, um, yeah, man, I'll never forget that time. You mentioned having a kinesiology major. Um, you know, as you, as you go, as you grow as an athlete, you learn more and more and becoming, being a professional is actually really difficult because in the beginning, it's like, I'm just going to do anything and everything I can to be the best. And I'm going to grind it out. And I don't care if it takes me 12 hours a day, but as you get more into it, and especially as you get better at it, like you're really explosive. I've seen you fight a bunch of times. I've seen you train before. Um, it becomes

more detrimental if you train too much or do too much or don't sleep enough. So you can't like, just close your fist and close your eyes and just like try to grind it out. There's gotta be more thought, a lot, a lot more thought involved in it. What are some things that you've done in the last two, three years that really made a big difference? Yeah. I mean, that's being a wrestler. I think the wrestling mindset has always been just balls to the wall. Every workout has to be a workout where you're about to puke or it was a crappy workout, you know? Um, and that's just the mindset that we were brought up with, you know, that's transferred over into MMA in the beginning, The first, probably five, six years of that, seven years of that was that it's like they're over-training was never even a thought process. It's just like every workout is hard.

Over-training is fucking fake news. Yeah. Three workouts a day, most of the time, you know, you'd take a day off in there, but it's just, it was just too much. And, um, you know, injuries happen, knock on wood. I was pretty blessed through my career, not have anything too serious, but, um, there's guys and I've seen at our gym, just, they get so wore down from the grind. They're just doing like those three days every day, not taking any days off. And, uh, you know, their body just gets too weak and they, they tear down. But, um, you know, I, I know you had Jason on here recently and he kind of recently,

the last year has brought something to my attention. Um, we went over to the UC Davis performance Institute. I was just there this morning. Yeah. And work with Judd. Do you work with Judd? Yeah. And, uh, Judd, um, got me a book by, uh, it's an ultimate conditioning for MMA. Um, unbelievable. Um, and so all the systems in that have definitely opened my eyes to a lot of different types of training and, uh, not only just training.

Is that by like Joel Jameson? Jameson. Yep. Yeah. And I don't want to give out all my secrets, but. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, Joel, well, Joel will be here in, uh, like at the end of this month, I think. Nice.

Yeah. Everybody has nothing but positive things to say about joel i've never met him but yeah everybody says that he's smart and he flies a helicopter around he wants me to get up in his helicopter really i'm not good with that yeah heights aren't my favorite thing i'll do it but it's not my favorite thing terrifying yeah so you know i've been doing a lot implementing a lot of his training last year. So, um, going off the heart rate, really focusing on recovery, um, working the specific systems for different times of the training camp. Um, and I feel right now I feel unbelievable and it's

so awesome. Like me being offered the time that I was off, you know, and not being anywhere near fight shape and then coming into, you know, training camp and even pre-training camp to where I'm doing these types of systems and these types of workouts, like seeing the improvements each week has been unbelievable. I think before when it was just balls to the wall all the time, you don't really notice a lot of improvements. If there are any,'re really minute but you know the last few weeks probably the last 16 weeks i've seen so many big improvements it's awesome it's motivating it's like something that makes me want to get in there and continue to to get those those gains and keep moving forward so yeah and here's something you know something a little different like you might

feel better as the fight gets closer rather than feel worse yeah and that happens to me a lot of the camps that i've gone through because it was always balls to the wall the first like four weeks you know i feel unbelievable i like peak like four or five weeks into the camp and then the last bit is just like me fighting the whole time like i'm fighting the the fatigue like throughout every single round and you get into the fight, the weight cuts harder. And then you're like exhausted after the first round. You're like, there's no way I should feel like this. Like I've trained so hard. And that's probably the reason it's so over-trained that your body can't keep up. Yeah. You see that happen in a lot of sports. It happens actually,

one of the sports where you can like physically see it really well is in bodybuilding. Somebody will come in over-trained and, uh, and, and in powerlifting too, you'll see the performance will suck. But in bodybuilding, you can actually physically see it on the person where sometimes the guy looks better three or four days after the show. And then in fighting, I've heard a lot of fighters say, oh yeah, after every fight, I go to Hawaii and when I come back, I feel amazing. Happens to me every time.

And it's like, oh, well maybe, maybe your training is a little, a little overdone, you know, but how scary would it be if, if the coach just said, Hey, listen, two weeks before the fight, you're not doing anything. Like just a little shadow box. You'd be like, wait, what? I couldn't do it, but no, I need to, you know, you'd be all anxious. Right. And that might cause even more problems is then your, uh, your confidence is gone. How do you develop confidence to fight? I mean, you fought some of the best guys in the world. How do you develop that kind of confidence? Where, where does some of that come from? I mean, you can call it confidence or stupidity, whatever you want to call it. But, um, I mean, ultimately it's the training. Um, I guys on TV. These guys are monsters.

Then your name is announced. Then their name is announced. That's the guy who's standing across the cage from you. It's crazy, man. It's unlike anything else. I'll be honest. It's something that there's been times where I step in an octagon and the gate closes. I'm just like, what the hell am I doing?

There's Jose Aldo. Just looking all jacked on your left side wait can i yeah hold on a second can we pause this yeah it's just that's just part of the game man it's uh you know you try to build that confidence throughout your training camp you're going with guys that are also high level in the ufc so when you're doing well against those guys, it just builds the confidence knowing, okay, if I can do this to these guys or hang with these guys, it's not going to be any problem

when I get in there and fight this dude. Where'd you develop some of this explosiveness from? A lot of these highlights, you're really, really extremely explosive and quick. And then you're also doing backflips after some of the fights and stuff. Where did some of that come from? I don't know.

I mean, I think it's a lot of genetics on it, honestly. Um, you know, my mom was very fit. My dad was always tan and jacked. So, um, I'm guessing from that, but, um, I've always been that type of athlete, even in wrestling as a little kid, that, that was always my like strength was my strength and my explosivity. So, uh, it's just kind of transferred over into the fight game. Did you play a lot of other sports? Um, I did a few wrestling was the main sport. I actually started swimming as a little, little kid before I started. I think I was maybe three and a half or four years old, swam for a little bit and then jumped right into wrestling. But, um, I did water

polo to get in shape for wrestling season usually i did it uh seventh eighth ninth and tenth grade not a lot of people know water polo is like extremely extremely physical and people are like beating the crap out of each other and that too right oh yeah trying to like drown each other yeah you're not you can't touch the bottom so it's like it doesn't matter how tired you are these guys are like grabbing you with their legs and like pulling you under the water you're just like fighting for air. Yeah. It's, it's mentally very taxing and physically. So it was good. It was always a good thing. Uh, preseason, I always felt unbelievable when I did that and then jumped right into wrestling season. I was so far ahead of all the other guys.

Um, you're a smaller athlete. Like what's the weight class that you fight in? 145. Was, uh, that part of anything as a kid like being shorter and being smaller being undersized like hey i can do some of this shit too and then you got fired up to do some sports and stuff like that and wrestling was a big thing for you yeah you know i i don't know if if it was just because i've always been a top level athlete like even when i was a little kid i was always at the top of wrestling and i've never had that like i never knew i was small i don't never felt that

because you fought big yeah so i understand i don't know people like growing up i got in some fights but with the i mean if you know wrestling you're gonna whoop anybody pretty much you know anybody in the street yeah take them down in two seconds they're gonna be like what did i get myself into yeah there was there was a few big guys that would pick some things and i would just take them down and it's over you know yeah? Yeah. And other people, like if it's in school, other people see that and they're like, I ain't messing with him. They just, uh, run the other way. Yeah. So how was it, uh, you know, learning jujitsu and learning all the other trades that are involved and jujitsu is the one that gets, you know, people talk about the most, but was that tough to learn

a lot of that stuff? No, the, the jujitsu for me transferred pretty well. I think from the wrestling, my style of wrestling. So maybe the striking was a little bit more of a difficult thing. The striking was, like I said, I think just cause I was bent over my whole life and then having to stand straight up and learn how to like move my, my core and different types of manners. Uh, like I said, punches getting thrown at my face and, um, getting hit with punches and kicks and everything. Uh, that was probably the toughest

thing, but the jujitsu actually, I felt pretty good, picked it up pretty quick. Um, plus training with Uriah and all those Joseph Benavidez. Yeah. Those guys, it's all like catch wrestling style where it basically has the wrestling feel. And then those scrambles you're looking for submissions so that's that's more of my style um i'm not really the type of guy that like lay on my back and try to go for like a bunch of moves yeah arm bars and triangles and stuff like that but um yeah i mean i think it transferred pretty well when did you get into hunting man, I've been hunting my whole life. Is that kind of a family thing? Like your uncle hunted or something like that?

My dad, my dad. Yeah. I, uh, I just remember, you know, following him around. We used to hunt, um, in D7, which is like up above Fresno up in the Sierras up there and, uh, hunting black-tailed deer. And, and, you know, when I was a little kid following him, I probably five, six, seven years old. And then, uh, legally in California, you can hunt big game when you turn 12.

Um, you have to go through a course, they call it the hunter safety course. You're probably excited for that, right? I was counting down the days, like the day, I think I even got it done the day of, or like the day after they were offering a course. Me and my brothers and my dad sat there through it, uh, through it with us, but got it and, uh, ended up harvesting my very first deer with my bow that, uh, that year. So it was, it was a big year for me. Yeah. That's pretty cool. And then, you know, through your hunting and stuff like that, then you ended up meeting, uh, Jason, how'd you end up meeting him?

Yeah. Through the hunting world, basically. I mean, he's a local guy in here. Um, and I think I met him and I'm not sure exactly when I met him. Maybe it was one of the, the show, the expo shows here, the big hunt expos or something like that. But it's your favorite thing to hunt. Probably elk. I think elk during the rut when they're screaming, chasing them with a bow. It's a, it's insane, dude. And those, you know, six, eight, 900 pound animals, you know, giant racks are two feet from you just

bugling i think they're the best thing to eat oh i haven't i haven't hunted one but that's another reason why i've eaten them man they're fucking good yeah they're really good and it's a lean meat you know i've heard rogan talking about that before and he's just like hey this is like one of the super athletes it's in the forest, you know as opposed to a cow Right what it is pretty much. It's a cow, but it's the super athlete of the forest like you say, yeah there there Tough animals to hunt they can be but yeah I mean you can fill a freezer with one of those and they've off it for a year and a half two years and It's it's pretty cool. I love it. Are there some challenges in hunting that you like that are maybe related to fighting?

Yeah. I think there's quite a few similarities. Some of the patience, right? It's going to take a long time. Yeah, for sure. The patience, um, strategy. Like, I mean, you can't just, I mean, you can happen. Sometimes guys get lucky and they just kind of wander off and stumble upon something and

shoot it. But usually you got to do your homework. You know, you have to scout an area. Um, a lot of topo mac type stuff you pull up an area you know you're going to be hunting you can kind of look at different ridge lines you know you can see typically with with uh you know different densities of the forest like if there's a nice draw or something that's pretty heavily wooded usually and then everything else is pretty bare that's probably a good bedding area

um you know you got to strategize and look at the area. It's the same thing with a fight. Like you have an opponent, you got to watch a video on them. You got to, you know, figure out a game plan, what works for you, uh, their strengths and weaknesses. Um, kind of the same thing with hunting, I think. Yeah. Preparing for a fight, you want to try to, you want to try to scout the guy and try to look into what he, what he's doing. And then you want to try to sometimes have sparring partners mimic how much of that do you guys do you do a lot of it or is it more like you're maybe focusing on some weaknesses and things like that of your own um i think it's a mix of all that i mean we we definitely focus on any weaknesses that we have but like we'll sit down with all our coaches we watch um film like a bunch of different fights

even training, if there's anything like that. And just kind of game plan, like, okay, we're seeing this, he's, you know, dropping his hand here when he does this, or he really likes to do this in this type of situation. And then you kind of just see tendencies and then you kind of base your, your game plan off of that. Like, I feel like, you know, I should be able to do this. If I do this, he's doing this, I'm going to do this kind of, you know, a chess match without actually being in the game yet. Um, and then you kind of train around that type of thing. Like if I know I have to close the distance quick on this, this guy, maybe he's longer than me.

Um, I do a lot of explosive type work, um, um, explosive cardio type work where it's, you know, not something that I can do three times and then I'm completely gassed out, um, you know, and just kind of build that type of stuff. Um, maybe throwing big overhand rights or, or working on, on wrestling, getting them down to the ground. So yeah, there's definitely a mix of, of all the game planning that goes on with all the coaches. All this stuff must take a really long time. It must be tremendously time consuming. What's your day look like? What time you wake up in the morning? Um, well, I try to sleep as much as I can. Obviously, you know, you know, sleep is when you recover.

So, you know, if I'm doing two hard workouts in a day, you know, I try to get to bed 11, 1130. Um, and then I'm usually waking up about eight when I first practiced that 930. So I like to get up, kind of take my time a little bit in the morning, get a good meal, um, and then head out. It takes me about half hour to get to the gym. So I have a little bit of time there and then, um, usually work out. I'll come home, eat something. I try to rest or get some. So I started a business called fins and feathers and I usually get some fins and feathers work, answer emails. So basically what it it is it's that we call it like a celebrity outdoor adventure company cool um and we have a bunch of different celebrities a lot of different ufc fighters pro baseball basketball some football players actors and we send those

celebrities on hunting or fishing trips with clients so people can like book a trip and then you know they'll know like say um uriah faber is going to be on this fishing trip or clay wheat is going to be on this fishing trip i want to book this spot so they you know they book a spot and we have a full year-long schedule already planned out so people can look okay on this date uh we're going to san diego on a big tuna fishing trip uh chad mendez is going to be on that one i want to go on that one so they shoot us an email we uh get our team in contact with them they they book the spot and then we fill up that full year-long schedule and go to town so that's pretty cool yeah it's been a lot of fun i launched that me and a good buddy um launched it back in 2015

and the last couple years just been killing it with it, having a lot of fun, getting to travel all over the world and meet cool people and hunt and fish and get paid for it. So that's pretty, that's pretty awesome. What ended up happening with your suspension? I think people are confused. Something I heard was that it was like eczema cream. And then of course people are going to be like eczema cream.

Yeah, right. Right. A lot of people are going to doubt what happened. What did happen? So it was my entire life. So I have psoriasis all over my body. I got it all over my shins. I got it all over my scalp.

I get it in my ears. Sometimes on my elbows, kind of comes and goes. Is that like a virus or something? No, it's just, it's like chronic dry skin. Basically what it is, your body produces. So we all have skin cells that are shedding constantly. And in these specific patches on your skin, your body produces so much so fast that it doesn't have time to shed it off. So you just build up this plaque of dead skin cells. So it just looks pretty hideous. It's gross. It itches a lot, flakes everywhere. It's pretty

gross. But anyway, so my whole life, I've always had people see it and they go, Oh, I have something that's good for that. I have eczema or I have psoriasis. Try this, you know, and my whole life I've always, you know, tried it for a couple of days. Some of it would irritate it, make it worse. Some of it would be fine or didn't really see anything. Um, and that's kind of gone on my whole life. Never, you know, really thought anything of it. Well, I had a buddy that had eczema and this was a cream that had a peptide in it. You know, I guess it's probably pretty big in the fitness world. I'm sure. GHRP6.

Basically what it does is it's supposed to raise your body's natural level of growth hormone, which is good for your skin. You got suspended for two years for that? Yeah. Well, I think the two years was my own fault because I didn't fight it. Oh. You know, I just said, you know what? So I'll, I'll tell you why in a second. But anyway, so I ended up using it.

Buddy gave it to me. He's like, yeah, I use this for a couple of weeks and it, you know, helped a lot. That's amazing. All that drug does is make you more hungry, really. Yeah, it's stupid. I know I did some research after. I'm like, this isn't even like anything. It's's performance enhancing i guess if it's on the list on the list yeah yeah it is what it is but anyway so used it um i got in trouble and i had already so i had lost

to frankie edgar i got caught you know i took the fight against connor before that on very short notice i think 10 days notice um obviously wasn't ready for the fight got caught with a punch at the end and went down and then took another fight a couple months later pretty damn good in that fight i thought for not thank you yeah not being ready for controlled the whole first round that's for sure and then so with frankie i got just barely clipped and you know flash knockout and so i i told usc like, look, I'm going to step out for a little bit. You know, my health to me is more important. Like I'm trying to start a family, you know, I, I want to be able to talk when I'm 50 years old.

Went through a whirlwind of fights. Yeah. And yeah. And so I said, I'm going to take the year off. Like, don't book me for anything. I'm going to step back, just let my body heal up for a little bit, not get punched in the head for a little bit. And I'd already told him that. And like halfway through that, that's when this all went, went on. So I didn't even

have a fight booked or anything. So it's not like I was trying to cheat for a fight or something, you know? You didn't even win. No. Yeah. And so. Not like you were able to get away with anything. Yeah. And so they ended up, they ended up saying like, look, okay, well, what is it? And I said, well, this is what I was using. Obviously I didn't know that that was a substance that was on the ban list i didn't look at the ingredients a buddy just said hey try this on your psoriasis but i looked on it it's obviously in there this is what it is but you've had to deal with that real tall dude jeff right yeah yeah yeah novinsky yeah we've had him on the podcast before too yep he's he's the ufc side of the usada right right but um anyway so i just basically said look i was going to take time off anyways i don't feel like dealing with all this

bs like i was pretty pissed off about it in the first place um and so i just said look i'm not i'm not going to fight this like everything happens for a reason i'm going to step back i just launched fins and feathers i said i'm going to put my time and energy into this and grow this. Cause this is going to be what I do after I'm done fighting. I can't fight forever. Um, and it is what it is. So I just basically washed my hands of it and walked away. And I think that kind of pissed a lot of people off because I didn't try to fight and you know, it is what it is. I, you were just like, I'm going to take some time anyway. I was going to take the time and you know, it was embarrassing is i you were just like i'm gonna take some time anyway yeah i was gonna take the time and you know it was embarrassing like i wasn't trying to cheat and

i don't want to be known like i've been a hard worker my whole life yeah and i don't want to be known as someone that's you know taking a bunch of steroids or something doesn't help it i've always been like a short stocky guy either oh i knew he's been on stuff his whole life yeah you're explosive you're in good shape like Like, oh, yeah, of course. Yeah. So, you know, I was embarrassed and I just didn't feel like dealing with it. I was pissed off at the situation. Just said, look, I'm done.

I'm going to take the time off. And if I feel like coming back after and when that time comes, then I'll do it. If not, you know, I'll just keep moving forward with my life. And, you know, I got closer. The drive, everything was still there. I wanted to compete. I said, screw it. Let's, uh, start getting back in shape and, and let's keep pushing for that title run.

So they must just put stuff on a list too. Cause they're like, we don't even know about this yet. So we're just going to put it on a list, right? Like, cause like something like that, like there's just not that many people that even know what the hell that is. Um, it's not that. It's not that common. Does that, I mean, it's got to hurt in some way. Like if you put a post on social media and somebody says something like that you're a cheater or whatever.

Does it hurt? Would it bother you? Even though it's people you don't know? No, because I think, I mean, maybe in a way, yeah. I've been dealing with tough guys on the internet for years. So it's like, I've kind of gotten, with tough guys on the internet for years. So it's like, I've kind of gotten to the point where it's just like, whatever. Most of the time, if I read like the first two or three words and I can tell it's something negative,

I don't even finish reading it. I just block them and delete it off my post because, you know, I do this because I love the sport. I don't need the negativity. Yeah. And so I've just basically over the last few years, weeded out any negative people. You negative even if it's you know something that's kind of stupid but you're being negative like you're out of here i don't need that like i'd rather have one follower that's positive than a million that are a bunch of negative haters so yeah so i just kind of weeded that out an interesting thing because like you're you know the internet you're only subject to what you want to be subject to and sometimes people just want to be subject to something they could be inflammatory towards like i might have somebody like that might make comments every time i post something is always negative yeah it's like dude

you can just like close your laptop or just yeah you don't look at a girl's butt on instagram instead of fucking bothering me like you know yeah for them to feel like they got to go out of their way to sit down yeah it's funny to me to me. I don't get it. I'll never understand it, honestly. But I mean, there's just a lot of weird people on this earth. How do you handle some losses? You mentioned having, uh, what, three in a row there, right? Uh, two in a row. I lost to Connor and, and, um, Frankie, but, uh, I mean, it sucks. I mean, I've been, uh, like I said. Does it help at all that these are the best guys in the world? Is that like, no, no, it doesn't matter. Right. Cause you're trying to be the best in the world too.

Yeah. It sucks. Um, especially, I mean the Connor fight, it's shitty because I, you know, I lost the fight. I took the, and I know that I can beat that guy. You know, I took the fight on short notice. If I was in shape. Did you hear that Connor McGregor? Yeah. Motherfucker. Can you take us through what it's like to get that phone call, you know,

to, you know, be a, like a substitute fighter, like right on a short notice? Yeah. I mean, I absolutely hate it and I'll probably

never do it again, honestly. I've done it one other time. Picture like he's on a hunt. I was. And I was fishing. He's like on all fours crawling, you know,

to get in position. He's like, hello? Yeah. I was actually on my boat fishing for salmon. I had a beer in one hand and a rod in the other. And I'm, you know, fishing. Throw the beer over your shoulder and paddle back as fast as you can.

That's basically what happened. Turn the boat around. And yeah, so it was 10 days. Dana's like, hey, all those injured um we need you to fill in when you want to do it and i'm like i mean i don't really want to take this on short notice because i think this is a fight that i can win and it's going to be tough to do someone that's been training a whole camp and me just jumping in especially because he's a lot bigger than i am you know and uh but i was like they throw a number amount at you price wise to where you're like, how am I going to turn that down?

You know, like, you know, one of the main reasons why I'm doing the sport is to grow money in my account to where I can step away from it at a healthy time in my life and then move forward. You know, and so that was kind of the deal. And, you know, I took that fight on short notice. I feel like, like I said, I can win that fight. I take the guy down and I just stay on top of him and elbow him, out-wrestle him. His wrestling was garbage. But that's just the fight game.

You win some and you lose some. Those types of losses are frustrating because you know you can win. And then the fight with Frankie too. I mean, I love Frankie. I mean, I don't ever have anything negative to say about Frankie he's a positive dude hard worker um but in my mind I know I can win that fight as well you know I'd done something different with that camp I started using a dietician which I've never done before um and had me doing um different things in my weight cut uh uh, you know, natural diuretics and, um, even the day of

sitting in, in the Epsom salt bath. I've never done that. I've always just been the hard worker where I throw my plastics on sweats and I just hit minutes or Russell till the last couple of pounds are off while I sat in the bathtub and took the diuretics. And I don't know if it just dehydrated my head a lot, but I mean, he just barely clipped me and I was like a flash knockout, you know, and I'll never do that again. And I want to try to hopefully get that fight back under my belt, but we'll see what happens. What does your diet look like nowadays? Um, I mean, I eat, I pretty much eat clean all the time.

I mean, I'll, I'll have a In-N-Out burger from time to time, you know, something like that. Flying Dutchman. Yeah. But, uh, most, most of the meat. The French fries too? Oh yeah. Oh, In-N-Out fries are like. Yes yes there you go and see but no through my camp i eat a lot of the wild game that i hunt honestly

um i'd say probably 85 85 to 90 percent of the meat i mean i don't go to the store to buy meat if we go out or something with friends or something then i'll eat you know the other meat but most of the stuff that i eat at home, most of it, from time to time I'll have beef or chicken, but it's all the stuff. I got three freezers in my garage. I go out, I just open the chest freezer and I got, you know, I got elk, I got deer, wild pig, turkey, a bunch of different ducks. You know, you name it, it's in there.

What about carbs? Carbs? Right now. We need some carbs, right? You gotta, you train a lot. You train often, right? I try to eat a ton of carbs. Train three or four times a day? Uh, usually just two.

Two. Yeah. And that's, I used to do the three days and I've just noticed it's way too much. Like I said, I'm peaked out at like four weeks into camp and then everything else is no go from there. So cut back to two. A quote that I heard recently, recently is that a reasonable time is enough time. Yeah, exactly. You know what I mean? Like if it sounds unreasonable, if you're like, I work at that 15 hours a day,

that's not going to work out for very long. No. Like maybe that, maybe that's okay for a few days, right? But after a while, it's going to be not so good. No way. And Joel talks about that in his book. It's like, you want to find, uh, the minimal amount of time that will get you the best benefits. Like you don't need to, like, if you can get the same benefits doing, you know, a run for 10 minutes as you would as, you know, 30 minutes, why do the 30 minutes when you can do 10 minutes and still get the same results? You know, you, all you're going to do is push yourself to overtrain at that point.

So I try, I'm trying to do that and work that system out now. So all know, I feel good though. Potatoes, rice, that sort of thing. Yeah. Potatoes, a lot of sweet potatoes, um, brown rice, um, supplements. I'll do white rice. Yeah. So I'm with mountain ops right now. So usually it's just way like right after, um, I'll do some of the Targo. Um, that's not Mountain Ops, but it's just... But like a fast-acting carbohydrate. Yeah, something right after BCAAs. I do... They have these things called Blaze Shots. It's kind of like a five-hour energy.

And I'll use that sometimes. You know, I usually do. I'm pretty caffeine sensitive. So half of one of those and I'm wired for a workout. Just a little bit here and there. Yeah, I try not to have caffeine every day. Right. I'll usually do, you know, maybe two or three days on and then maybe take a day or two off. And then I usually feel good again whenever I take it. What do you think is harder in the

long run, winning or losing? Um, winning. I mean, losing, losing is, it sucks mentally, but it's, you know, you gave up or you're, up or you got beat so that it's over. You know, that's the easy way out. What's it like looking back and watching that shit on tape? That's got to at least like. Yeah. Right? I mean.

The loss aside, I hate watching them. You don't want to go to the gym. Like you don't want to be out in public, right? Like it's got to be hard because you guys are on TV. Yeah. I mean, it depends how the fight goes. Like I just talked to Clay Guida who trains with us now and he just, he just fought this last weekend.

I love Clay Guida. He's a beast. That guy's a monster. He's awesome. I love the guy to death. Big outdoorsman. He loves fishing and stuff, but. Maniac, man.

Yeah. He's a maniac. But he had a big fight in front of his hometown and just got beat in the first round, unfortunately. And I just talked to him. I was FaceTiming with yesterday and he's so bummed. And he's like, you know, it's not so much that I lost. Like, yeah, it sucks that I lost. It just sucks that I had all my friends, all my family.

And that's the same thing for me. I think that's what makes it the most difficult is that you feel like you let everybody down. Like everyone's going there to support you. Everyone's excited, you know, and they always tell you, like, we love you, you know, either way. You get them next time, that's the worst.'re like they're next time you start crying uh as long as you gave it your all that's all we care about yeah that one too you're like but i gave

it my own i lost that makes it worse yeah yeah yeah i always uh i always tell people that i think that sometimes winning can be people people sometimes can't even handle what it takes to win, you know, what it takes to win day in and day out. Andrew, you got a couple of questions popping up over there. I had one, um, someone like Uriah Faber, he, he always used to say, like, you don't have to get ready if you stay ready, you know, you're, you're on a boat, you're fishing and stuff. How do you, as a fighter, allow yourself to kind of like take your time off? Yeah.

And that's, that's a fine line. And, you know know Faber sold us that from day one and I believe it too but I think for most sports it's one thing but for the fight game like you see these guys that go balls to the wall 24 7 all year long I mean those are guys that are blowing their knee out blowing their shoulders out you know getting big injuries because their body just gets so run down, man. And the, the drive and the motivation, like, do you want to get punched in the fight game you know what hobbies whatever it is spending time with the family um and go do that in my opinion like unplugging and getting away away from it yeah is a great reset at least for me like when i go hunting and fishing like that's my way to kind of just disconnect from any of the media you know all the all the cameras you know the punches getting thrown at my face, you know, the grind, just waking up, just sore from head to toe, everything aching.

Or even just getting away from all the cell phone signals. Exactly. Yeah. So. That's awesome. I mean, I just, I think there's a fine line. You got to unplug for a little bit. Yeah.

That's huge. And how often are you sparring during this camp? We spar two times a week with punches. And then we do like live wrestling, live jets and all that type of stuff. Um, two to three times a week as well. Cool. So. All right. You've only lost to some of the best in the world. You've only lost to champions, guys that have had the belt. What do you need to do to get the belt? I think what I'm doing right now with this new system, the way that we've upgraded the gym and the types of coaches that we have now,

the positive mindset that everybody has and that I need to keep throughout my camp when I'm, like I said, waking up sore from head to toe and not wanting to do it. I think that's key. And just keep pushing, just doing what I'm doing right now. Keep seeing the improvements. Like I said, it's so awesome being able to go from week to week and see how I feel, how my heart rate numbers are, are getting better and better each week for those sparring days. Um, and I think just doing that and I'm going to be right on track. Yeah.

Having that long break's got to help. Having a little luck too in this game, a little luck goes a long way. So yeah. And visualizing, you know, and, and having that long break and coming back fresh, I'm sure will help a lot. Hey man, thank you so much for taking the time out of your training. I know that this is like a really, really important time for you and all of us here at super training and slingshot.

We were, I got goosebumps thinking about it. We're so fired up for it. So excited for it. Can't wait to see you fight, man. Thanks again. You got anything you want to plug? You got your social media, your websites, any of your sponsors? Yeah. You can follow me on Instagram, just at Chad Mendez and it's M E N D E S not a Z. Um, um, same thing with Facebook

and Twitter. Um, I do have a YouTube. So if anyone is interested in seeing any of the fins and feathers hunts that I told you guys about, yeah, I film, I just vlog a lot of that stuff. So it's not like, you know, super crazy production type stuff, but it's me with the camera in my hand telling you what I'm about to do and then sneaking in on an animal or catching fish or hanging out with the other celebrities. And, um, even some of my training and stuff is on there. So if anyone wants to check that out, just, just look me up, Chad Mendez, and you can check all that stuff out. So cool. It's all the time we got strength is never a weakness later. Thanks guys.