Gray Maynard recently began training and helping UFC featherweight champion, Jose Aldo, for his upcoming bout against Chad Mendes according to tatame.com.

Maynard offered to help Aldo after the Brazilian was matched up with Mendes. Maynard and Mendes both share a common background in NCAA wrestling.

"He knows how to defend the takedowns very well, I trained with him and it was hard for me to take him down...He knows what he gotta do, but we've watched many of his fights and I can tell you he doesn't need my help all that much, he's pretty good at this," Maynard said.

Although Mendes' striking improves in every bout, wrestling is still the bread and butter of Mendes' fight game which he uses to dictate the pace of the fight. Mendes has yet to be defeated in his 11 MMA bouts and last fought Rani Yahya to a unanimous decision victory at UFC 133.

"Chad Mendes is a great athlete, a very mature kid, but honestly I don't believe he's ready to fight Jose Aldo...Jose Aldo is a great champion, you can tell he feels comfortable at the cage and it seems he does what he wants to do in there," Maynard said.

Aldo will be looking to defend his UFC title for the third time when he takes on the unbeaten Mendes at UFC 142 scheduled on January 14, 2012 at the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.