Chad Mendes really packed on mass ahead of UFC return

Chad Mendes is set to return to the Octagon this weekend.

Remember Chad Mendes? He is scheduled to fight Myles Jury at UFC Boise in the wee hours of Sunday morning. “Money” was handed a two-year USADA suspension in June of 2016 stemming from an out-of-competition drug test. He tested positive for the banned substance GHRP-6, a growth-hormone peptide, which he claimed entered his system through a skin cream he was using to treat plaque psoriasis. That suspension ended last month leaving the perpetual featherweight contender free to resume his career. There are understandable questions over how good Mendes will look upon returning after such a long lay-off. Especially considering he was knocked out by Frankie Edgar in his last bout, which was his follow up to that KO loss to Conor McGregor for the interim featherweight strap. Besides that insane sudden-victory at Su3, we haven't seen much of Mendes' fighting since the suspension began. The one thing we do know is that Mendes will look bigger inside the cage this time around. https://www.instagram.com/p/BkedZ11AJcH/?hl=en&taken-by=chadmendes

Cultivating mass

Mendes revealed in an interview with Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports that he has put on a considerable amount of weight ahead of UFC Boise. Even though he expects it to be an easy weight cut, he claims he reached his heaviest weight ever during this camp. At one point, he was walking around at championship weight... for welterweight.

"Honestly, this is the best I've ever felt (during) fight week. My weight's on point. And, this was actually the heaviest I've ever been in my life for this." "I hit 170 lbs. I've never seen those numbers."

We'll have to wait and see if that extra poundage has any impact on his ability to make weight or, indeed, his ability to render adversaries unconscious.