{"id":243776,"date":"2025-10-27T16:15:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T16:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/243776\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T16:15:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T16:15:07","slug":"michael-chandler-returns-faces-ufc-vet-chad-mendes-in-chicago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/243776\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Chandler returns, faces UFC vet Chad Mendes in Chicago"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/2025\/5\/29\/24439740\/michael-chandler-finally-opens-up-about-disappointing-paddy-pimblett-loss-he-had-a-great-gameplan\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Skidding<\/a> Michael Chandler does not have a UFC fight booked for the remainder of 2025.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">But the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-mma-rankings\/397435\/brendan-allen-crashes-top-5-ufc-vancouver-rankings-update-major-moves-from-mike-malott-aiemann-zahabi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">No. 12-ranked<\/a> lightweight contender is not about to sit home and twiddle his thumbs while the rest of the division puts in work, which is why \u201cIron\u201d has inked a main event showdown opposite former UFC featherweight title challenger, Chad Mendes, for the Real American Freestyle (RAF) 3 headliner on Nov. 29 at Wintrust Arena in Chicago.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cBringing Chandler Mendes to the RAF mat is a full-circle moment for wrestling,\u201d said Chad Bronstein, CEO and co-founder of Real American Freestyle. \u201cThese are world-class fighters who never lost their connection to the sport that made them. This matchup proves what RAF is all about \u2013 giving elite athletes a platform to come home and remind the world where greatness begins.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">UFC stars Julianna Pena, Holly Holm, and Chael Sonnen, among others, are also RAF athletes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Chandler, 39, is an All-American wrestler and a two-time Big 12 Championship runner-up from the University of Missouri with 100 career wins. As for the 40 year-old Mendes, also an All American wrestler, he captured the Pac-10 conference championship in 2008 and was a NCAA Division I runner-up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cFor the first time, wrestlers have real options after college. RAF gives them a new lane to compete, get paid and keep doing what they love,\u201d said Izzy Martinez, co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Real American Freestyle. \u201cHaving legends like Mendes and Chandler join the roster shows how powerful that opportunity is.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The full RAF 3 lineup is expected in the coming days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Skidding Michael Chandler does not have a UFC fight booked for the remainder of 2025. But the No.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,33601,638,82,702,4454],"class_list":["post-243776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-news","tag-upcoming-ufc-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}