It looks like Chad “Money” Mendes is going be cashing-in at UFC 189 whether he gets the call to step in and fight Conor McGregor on short notice or not.
Mendes spoke with Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports earlier this week and talked about how he was approached by the UFC to be the official replacement opponent for McGregor if Jose Aldo pulls out of the scheduled UFC Featherweight Championship bout on July 11.
Mendes told Iole that he accepted the offer to potentially fight McGregor for an interim title before he knew if he would even be paid for his efforts or not.
“Honestly, I don’t know,” said Mendes when asked if he would be paid even if he doesn’t end up fighting at UFC 189. “I guess we’re still talking. I don’t really know. But they offered me the chance to be the stand-by fighter for UFC and, paid or not, I was all over it. I was 100 percent going to do it.”
As it turns out, UFC President Dana White confirmed that Mendes will be paid to make weight and be on stand-by just in case anything happens with Aldo or McGregor on the weekend of the big fight, a practice that apparently isn’t unusual in the UFC.
White noted that the company has been in similar situations in the past, most recently with the UFC 184 title fight between Ronda Rousey and Cat Zingano, as UFC Women’s Bantamweight contender Jessica Eye was paid to be on stand-by in case something happened with Rousey or Zingano heading into the fight.
Currently, Aldo still plans on defending his UFC 145-pound title against “The Notorious” Conor McGregor on Saturday, July 11 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, however if he doesn’t, “Money” Mendes will step in and fight the rising Irish superstar for an interim belt, and as we now know — whether Mendes gets the call or not — he’s getting paid.
