Tainan Dalpra recently shared his thoughts on the potential return of the Mendes brothers to competing in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
Both Rafael and Guilherme Mendes retired at a young age – Guilherme in 2015 and Rafael in 2016 – while still in the prime of their athletic careers.
And, as one of the top students at Art of Jiu-Jitsu, Dalpra not only trains under Rafael and Guilherme Mendes but also serves as one of their main training partners.
So, he has a unique insight into whether or not they could return to competition…
And he believes that it’s becoming increasingly likely:
I see a possibility for them to return. I believe it most likely wouldn’t be at an event.
It would most likely be a superfight, than in a federation. But yes, that possibility exists.
There have even been several negotiations as of late, plus the Mendes brothers are staying active in training:
There’s been a couple of negotiations going on in the last couple of months but nothing concrete yet.
I think what’s more cool to see is that they are always active.
Training, training with me, training with other students, and trying to elevate the level of everyone at the gym.But certainly it’s a possibility and that possibility is getting very close to becoming concrete.
So I believe so, that in the next two years we could see Rafael (Mendes) or Guilherme (Mendes) returning with or without the gi.
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