That loss may serve as the final fight for Mendes as Farah Hannoun is reporting that the fighter has retired from professional MMA competition. It should be noted that Mendes has yet to publicly address the status of his career as of this writing, also no word has been given by the UFC on the fighter’s status as well.
Mendes would end his career with a record of 18-5-0, picking up notable victories over Erik Koch, Cub Swanson, Rani Yahya, Cody McKenzie, Darren Elkins, Clay Guida, Nik Lentz, Ricardo Lamas and Myles Jury. Mendes did lose two years of his professional MMA career due to a failed drug test in May of 2016, which the fighter did blame on psoriasis cream.
The now retired fighter did have three opportunities to become the UFC Featherweight Champion, losing twice to Jose Aldo at UFC 142 and UFC 179, while also losing an interim title bout to Conor McGregor at UFC 189. Mendes currently sits at #5 in the UFC Featherweight Rankings, but that should change when the promotion updates those rankings this coming Tuesday.
