Chad Mendes turned down an opportunity to fight for Jose Aldo's featherweight title, instead taking another tune-up fight against dangerous grappler Rani Yahya on the UFC 133 undercard.

In front of a live audience on the Spike TV preliminaries, Mendes outstruck and outgrappled the Brazilian jiu-jitsu specialist over the course of three rounds to earn a unanimous decision.

With Yahya being primarily a ground fighter and not being nearly as strong of a wrestler a the Team Alpha Male golden child, he was at the mercy of Mendes' striking.

The undefeated prospect fought safely, but did more than enough to pull out a unanimous decision victory.

It wasn't the most exciting fight, and there were some scattered boos from the crowd but Mendes admitted in his post-fight interview that he injured his hand in round two.

This was Mendes' fourth straight unanimous decision victory and while he's done more than enough to win each fight, he's not exactly winning over the crowd. 

We'll see if tonight's performance was enough for him to earn a title shot against the winner of Jose Aldo and Kenny Florian later this year or if he needs another win.

What did you think?