Chad Mendes
This past weekend a story surfaced from the Hanford Sentinel that former UFC contender Chad ‘Money’ Mendes (12-1) was wanted by the King’s County Sheriff’s office in California in connection to a brawl at a local bar.
The story alleges that an intoxicated Mendes was ordered to leave the bar by police, who showed up to break up the brawl. Mendes failed to leave and instead began “cursing at the deputies and officers.” He then allegedly went back into the bar and subsequently sucker punched a patron before running out the back door. Authorities gave chase but were unable to catch Mendes.
The Sheriff’s office told the paper that they have tried to reach Mendes several times, unsuccessfully, and may file “assault with a deadly weapon” charge for the sucker punch.
On Saturday, MMAFighting.com reached out to Mendes to ask him about the incident. The fighter’s manager, Jeff Meyer, released this statement expressing “shock” and “surprise” over the allegations.
On Friday afternoon, Chad Mendes was shocked and surprised by the allegations contained in an article published on an Internet news site. While Chad acknowledges that an incident occurred last Saturday in Hanford, he contends that the majority of the facts pertaining to him in the story are absolutely false.
Attempts were immediately made by Chad’s representatives to contact personnel at the Sheriff’s Department on Friday afternoon. Despite these repeated attempts, Chad’s representatives have not received any response from the Sheriff’s Department at the time of this release.
Chad denies any wrongdoing and is very upset by the allegations contained in the story. He will fully cooperate with the Sheriff’s Department and looks forward to clearing his name.
Inside the cage, where Mendes is legally allowed to hit people regardless of the truth to the above allegations, Mendes was last in action on July 7 where he finished Cody McKenzie by knockout landing a punch to the body at 31-seconds of the first round at UFC 148. The victory allowed ‘Money’ to bounce back from a loss, the first of his career, versus UFC champ Jose Aldo in Brazil last January.