“He didn’t choose to sit it out,” Mendez said during a fan Q&A on YouTube (h/t MMA Fighting). “He just went back home and he was waiting and training and waiting for a location. So he didn’t choose to sit out anything.”
“They couldn’t give him a location and then he couldn’t get permission,” Mendez argued. “He wasn’t gonna be able to get permission, so he didn’t really sit anything out. He didn’t get permission and he didn’t get the location and now we know why he didn’t get the location because of fear of it leaking out. Because it leaked out, now look, there is no show.”