Backstage at UFC Philadelphia over the weekend, Michael Chiesa addressed the welterweight title picture, a possible fight with Neil Magny, and more.
Philadelphia, PA — Despite what you may have heard and what he may have tweeted, Michael Chiesa does not have a fight booked with Neil Magny for Chicago’s UFC 238. It might be in the works, “my manager’s in contact with his manager, and Sean [Shelby] liked the idea” he let slip back stage at UFC Philadelphia on Saturday.
But that is all, for now. Still, Chiesa decided to jump on an opportunity after a potential fight between Zaleksi Dos Santos and Magny leaked in the media. “The news was a surprise to me, when they announced the ZDS fight,” Chiesa said. “Then I found out it was false, and I threw it out there like ‘I was under the pretense, June, Chicago, me and you.'”
So no, a fight with Neil Magny is not a done deal for Michael Chiesa. He’s just looking for a way to break into the rankings.
“I feel like beating a guy like Carlos Condit, I don’t want to sound entitled, but I do kind of feel like I should be entitled to fighting a guy in the bottom of the top fifteen,” Chiesa said. After all, that was quite a way to start his tenure in the UFC’s 170lb division.
He’s liking his new home, he added, though recently, it has had a familiar feel. “It was very refreshing, then all of a sudden a lot of the guys from 155 have come up in the last two months. So it’s almost like similar territory.”
Despite that, Chiesa admits that “I like the title picture a lot better, I feel like it’s a much more clear road. I know they’re going to do the Usman-Colby fight, then we have the undisputed title thereafter. So I like the title picture at 170.”
One way to put it, “the water’s a lot less murky, that’s the best way of saying it. I can see the bottom. I can see where I gotta go.”
Watch the full UFC Philadelphia (UFC on ESPN 2) press scrum with Michael Chiesa above!
