Chad Mendes

Chad Mendes is dating a national level volleyball player Abby Rains and there has been news that both could get married sometime soon. However, presently Chad is going through a tough time professionally and it has delayed the plans of the marriage.

After tough fights, Chad relaxes himself with hunting and fishing, which he admits are two of his favourite hobbies since the childhood days.

Chad Mendes was born in Los Angeles, California on May 1, 1985 in a very average middle class family. Chad has repeated several times that his father was, is and will always be his biggest hero, and the spirit he carries of never giving up is something he took from his father.

Chad grew up in Central California, and the violent streak which he happens to have in abundance, is a result of his growing up years in that kind of an environment.

Chad has said on record that he was extremely close to his father and whenever he was on a holiday, his father would take him to hunting in the Sierras and during that period, he learned the value of patience.

Apart from hunting, he always had a deep liking for wrestling and he started playing the sport at the age of 5. In high school, he was already a tough young man, who although was a bit short in height, could take on kids much taller and stronger than himself.

Chad did wrestling in school and finished top 10 in the entire state three consecutive times and later, when he studied in the California Polytechnic State University, he wrestled for his college team and brought it several honours in the inter-college tournaments.

Chad Mendes joined the MMA team ‘Alpha Male’, where he started training under some of the most ferocious MMA fighters. In his first few matches as a trainee, he remained undefeated and went on to win the ‘Palace Fighting Championship’.

Chad spent two around more years honing his skills before making a move to the bigger tournaments and by March 2010, he was signed on by the World Extreme Cagefighting, one of the most brutal of MMA events.

On March 6, 2010, he made his debut against Erik Koch and secured a victory with referees announcing him the winner with an anonymous decision. The win, although important, didn’t come easy to him and he suffered a cut over his eye.

In an April 2010 match at WEC, his opponent Anthony Morrison faced a first round defeat via submission. In his next two matches, he secured victories over his opponents and remained undefeated in WEC.

What his WEC run gave him, apart from the obvious confidence and improved skills, was a large fan following which grew by thousands with each fight. His moves were slightly unorthodox, but made him a winner in the end, and nothing really mattered other than that.