Mendes fires back at Edgar for ‘disrespectful’ comments

After Conor McGregor defeated Chad Mendes at UFC 189 to claim the interim featherweight championship Frankie Edgar climbed up onto the platform the Octagon was on and congratulated Conor McGregor.

As it turns out Edgar wasn’t only impressed with McGregor, he also thought that Mendes was looking for a way out of the fight.

He spoke to Jon Anik and Kenny Florian on their podcast:

“You know, I think he was looking for a way out. I know it’s tough coming off two weeks notice and supposedly he broke his foot and whatnot but you’ve got to go into every fight trying to win, man. You can’t be fighting for a paycheck. If you’re fighting for a paycheck, I’m the wrong guy to be standing across the cage from.”

Chad Mendes, who faces Frankie Edgar on December 11th at the TUF 22 finale, wasn’t too happy with those comments.

“I think that’s super disrespectful. There’s no way I’m ever going into any fight looking for a paycheck, looking for a way out. I’m going in there to win every single time. There’s no way I’m ever taking a dive. There’s no amount of money in this world that could pay me off in a fight. I’m a very competitive person. I’ve been competing since I was five years old.

“This is my life. This is what I live for. I’ve built everything around that. I’m not going to go in there looking to find an easy way out. There’s only one way to find that out, Frankie. We’re going to find out Dec. 11. I definitely don’t think this is going to be an easy fight for you.”