Real American Freestyle will headline its first event with a match-up involving new signings, Michael Chandler and Chad Mendes.
The promotion announced that the current UFC lightweight fighter, Chandler, will face the retired Mendes on November 29 at the Wintrust Arena in Chicago at RAF03.
Chandler, 39, wrestled at the University of Missouri, where he became an All-American and placed fifth in the NCAA Division I championship in his senior year in 2009.
That same year, he made his MMA debut and would compete on a pair of Strikeforce Challengers events before signing with Bellator in 2010. Chandler won the promotion’s lightweight title from Eddie Alvarez in November 2011 in one of the best fights in the promotion’s history.
After ten years, he moved to the UFC and debuted in January 2021. Despite a 2-5 record for the promotion, he has had some of the most exciting fights in the division’s history with Charles Oliveira, Justin Gaethje, and Dustin Poirier. He has lost his last three fights and is coming off a TKO loss to Paddy Pimblett at UFC 314 this past April.
Mendes, 40, wrestled at Cal-Poly in San Luis Obispo, California, at 125 and 141 pounds. He was a runner-up at the NCAA Division I championships in 2008.
He joined Team Alpha Male and began his MMA career in 2008 and going 11-0 to start his career, including a 6-0 record in the WEC before joining the UFC in 2011. He suffered his first loss when he challenged Jose Aldo for the featherweight title in January 2012 and lost a rematch for the title in October 2014.
The biggest fight of his career occurred at UFC 189 in July 2015 when he stepped in for an injured Aldo to fight Conor McGregor for the interim featherweight championship. Mendes had less than two weeks to prepare and was not in ideal shape, and was stopped in the second round.
He was suspended for two years in 2016 for a USADA violation and returned to compete twice in 2018 before retiring. He returned for BKFC in 2022 and last competed in 2023 against Eddie Alvarez.
