Augusto Mendes has only suffered a single professional MMA defeat, that came to current UFC Bantamweight Champion Cody Garbrandt at UFC Fight Night 83. Mendes, while he wants another opportunity at Garbrandt, knows that it may take a few wins for him to get that second chance.
“No one is a champion by chance,” Mendes said to MMA Junkie. “He worked for that. After me, he won two fights quickly and fought very well at his title shot. It’s not that I’m happy or relieved that he won – on the contrary, I want to fight him again. To me, I’d be better if he lost to Dominick Cruz, so that I could have a chance to fight him sooner than I’d imagined. With him as champion, I’m going to have to make my way until I make it to the top. But I want to fight him again, with a full camp, and I believe I can put on a better fight.”
Mendes will be fighting Frankie Saenz at UFC Fight Night 103, Mendes says that you will see a different version of the fighter you saw battle Garbrandt.
“My confidence is way up there,” Mendes said. “I’m feeling well-trained, I’m doing my last week of camp, but I’m training very well. So all of this gives me a lot of confidence to go in there and have a good performance. My weight is great, so I’m not worried about anything, just going in there and fighting. Totally different than the last fight. I had five days, had to cut a lot of weight, a super tough opponent, so certainly the mental aspect is a lot better right now.”
UFC Fight Night 103 takes place on Sunday, January 15 from the Talking Stick Resort Arena in Phoenix, Arizona with Yair Rodriguez and BJ Penn headlining.
