The UFC has announced a featherweight main event between Chad Mendes and Ricardo Lamas to headline their April 4 Fight Night event planned at Fairfax, Va. The match pits two of champion Jose Aldo‘s most recent victims, as both Mendes and Lamas made failed title bids in 2014.
Mendes has actually met Aldo twice and failed on both of those attempts, the most recent one being his last outing, in October. Mendes was KO’d at the very end of the first round the first time he met Aldo, and he extended him the full five rounds but lost a unanimous decision the second time. Between the pair of fights with Aldo, which were separated by more than two years, Mendes went on a tear and had a firm grip on the number one contender spot, and he is going to have to equal or better that five-fight winning streak in order to justify a shot at Aldo again.
A minor factor if Mendes were to earn a thrid shot at Aldo is that both of the first two matches were in Brazil, and Mendes may feel different if the fight were, say, in his hometown of San Jose, Calif. But he is going to have to earn it.
Standing in his way is Ricardo Lamas. On paper, Lamas has a similar career to Mendes in the UFC, in that the only person who has beaten him in the octagon is Aldo. He challenged Aldo back in February, and he also extended Aldo the full five rounds before losing on the judge’s cards. Whereas Mendes may still be feeling the sting of his last loss, Lamas has gone 2-0 in that time span, getting back on the winning track with victories over Hacran Diaz and Dennis Bermudez.
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Both men are faced with waiting after this fight, as Aldo clashes with Ireland’s Conor McGregor and, depending on what happens in that fight, the winner of this fight could either be next in line for a title shot, or he could be looking at another tough fight with someone like Frankie Edgar.
Like always in the UFC, both men have to win, and look for Mendes to come in as the favorite when the line hits the books. With the pedigree of both men, the fight has a good shot of going the distance.
Check out the UFC’s video where Mendes breaks down his first fight with Jose Aldo in the “Film Room”.
