Ex-UFC star Chad Mendes RETIRES after being left with gruesomely swollen face in bare-knuckle fight with Eddie Alvarez
CHAD MENDES announced his retirement from fighting after a brutal bare-knuckle boxing bout with Eddie Alvarez.
The former UFC pair put on a hellacious show over five rounds in Denver, both scoring knockdowns against each other.
But Alvarez emerged with a split-decision victory, which left a battered and bruised Mendes to call it quits.
He said: "I just wanted to say thank you to all the fans.
"This has been a lifelong career for me, I started wrestling at the age of five years old, never taken a year off up until this now.
"I'm officially hanging them up tonight guys. Thank you very much for all the awesome memories through all my UFC career, coming into bare-knuckle."
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Mendes, 37, left the UFC in 2018 after retiring from MMA.
But in 2022 he crossed over to sign for Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship and stopped Joshuah Alvarez in his debut.
Ex-UFC lightweight champion Alvarez, 39, faced Mendes in his first BKFC fight after leaving MMA promotion ONE Championship.
And the two slugged it out in front of old rival Conor McGregor.
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McGregor knocked out Mendes for the interim UFC featherweight title in 2015 and repeated the result against Alvarez a year later for the lightweight belt.
The Irishman, 34, was seen ducking and dodging during the bout, shouting advice to his former opponents.
And he later faced off with BKFC champion Mike Perry, 31, who beat Luke Rockhold, 38, in the main event.
