Gotta give him the slow build up after the Aldo loss. With guys like Edgar, Guida, Swanson, Koch and Zombie ahead of him, its probably good to let Mendes pad his win record and highlight film with average fighters. So when it comes time for him to fight for the title again people wont just remember him as the guy Aldo KO'd.
I heard he was begging to get on this card so the UFC had to work with whats available.