Two of the most talented featherweight grapplers will meet on the Spike TV prelim special as Chad ‘Money’ Mendes (10-0) locks horns with Jiu-Jitsu ace, Rani Yahya (16-6).
Since the demise of the always entertaining World Extreme Cagefighting, many of its more diminutive star attractions have gone largely unnoticed, having been swallowed up by bloated cards, and relegated to such crevasses as Facebook prelims. This is another opportunity for the smaller guys to stake their claim for more useful exposure, and showcase what made the WEC such an exciting product to watch.
Both Mendes and Yahya have excelled in Mixed Martial Arts by exploiting the great talent they possess in their respective disciplines. Mendes who trains alongside former WEC champion and poster boy Uriah Faber, has thus far flawlessly made the transition from wrestling to MMA, dominating all ten of his victims with powerful takedowns and top control, while Yahya has made full use of his submission arsenal with fourteen of his sixteen victories coming by way of tap-out. Both fighters will look to showcase these skills further, with Mendes vying to make a statement and cement his place as next in line for the title, and Yahya planning to cause the upset and bring to an end Mendes’s seemingly unstoppable momentum.
Mendes has endured a frustrating time since the WEC’s absorption into the UFC, having been widely touted by many including UFC Kingmaker Dana White, as being next-up to face UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo. There has been much debate about his decision to take this fight, but with the Brazilian champ expected to be sidelined through injury until at least October, and Kenny Florian’s emergence at his new found weight class, he has chosen to stay active and must now navigate his way past a potential banana skin in the shape of tricky Brazilian submission stud, Yahya.
Though a mere four months separate them in age, the vastly more experienced Yahya has seen a career cascaded with both peaks and troughs, stand-out victories against two former WEC champions in Mike Brown and Eddie Wineland, as well as recent UFC featherweight title challenger Mark Hominick, contrast with tough losses including that of Mendes’s team Alpha Male stable-mate Joseph Benavidez and Japanese firecracker Kid Yamamoto. A victory here, against an opponent singled out as one of the hottest prospects in the division, would catapult the ADCC submission wrestling tournament winner high up the rankings.
Though Mendes outstanding wrestling will always be his main asset, it will be interesting to see how his stand up develops as he looks to push through the ceiling in a division lacking of worthy challengers to Jose Aldo’s crown. In his last few outings he has begun to show strong signs of improvement in this area, and should look to implement them with vigour, against an opponent who is much more comfortable on the ground.
Yahya will look to pressure Mendes in much the same way he always does, by doing just enough on the feet to close the gap and make room for the takedown, where ‘the constrictor’ is always extremely confident of applying enough suffocating pressure to make another opponent succumb to one of his many windpipe crushing choke-holds.
I do not subscribe to the belief that this is a straightforward tune-up fight for Mendes, as Yahya has proved in the past more than capable of capitalizing on any openings presented to him, but with that said, I expect Mendes to be too sprightly in the scrambles, and crucially, control enough of the fight on the feet, to take a decision victory.
