Eight years after they had been initially scheduled to compete within the UFC’s octagon, Michael Chiesa will get his probability to battle Tony Ferguson.
Chiesa and Ferguson face off in a welterweight tilt Saturday at UFC Abu Dhabi. The pairing was beforehand set for UFC Battle Night time 91 in July 2016 earlier than “Maverick” was pressured to withdraw as a consequence of a again harm. When he was known as about returning to the cage, Chiesa was shocked to search out out who he was combating.
“There was no different names mentioned,” Chiesa mentioned on The MMA Hour. “I knew in some unspecified time in the future I used to be going to get the telephone name, and Danny [Rubenstein], finest supervisor within the sport, known as me, and it was similar to, ‘You’re by no means going to imagine who they’re calling me about.’ I’m similar to, I mentioned [Stephen Thompson] first. He’s like, ‘Who’s the one battle you’d need, [that] you’d wish to have at 170 kilos?’ ‘Wonderboy,’ you understand, we form of talked about it for some time. He’s like, ‘It’s not him,’ he’s like, ‘Say another person,’ and I overlook who the second title was. After which I used to be like, ‘Simply inform me who it’s.’ He mentioned it’s Tony Ferguson.
“I used to be similar to, whoa, I didn’t see that coming.”
The bout serves as Chiesa’s first in additional than a 12 months after being submitted within the first spherical by Kevin Holland at UFC 291 in July 2023. The 36-year-old enters the battle for the primary time on the heels of a three-fight skid.
After receiving the information he can be going through Ferguson, Chiesa checked out it as a full-circle expertise.
“I believed I’d be, if I nonetheless had a rating subsequent to my title, I feel it’d be like a Randy Brown and Elizeu [Zaleski],” Chiesa mentioned. “These guys form of jockeying to get into the highest 15, however the actuality is I don’t have that quantity subsequent to my title. So the probabilities are limitless. I didn’t anticipate it to be Tony Ferguson.
“It’s ironic that I’m speaking to you 1722694308 as a result of once I was in coaching camp for Tony in 2016, it was … eight years in the past at the moment I acquired in a very dangerous automobile accident, and that was form of the [moment]. I used to be form of going by means of some private issues in coaching camp. I used to be form of depressed, actually depressed and I went to the shop to get groceries. On the way in which dwelling, I hadn’t slept a lot the evening earlier than and I fell asleep on the wheel and I wrecked my truck. I didn’t have a seat belt on, acquired a concussion, smashed my head on the window. after which inside a number of days, that’s once I ruptured my L-4, L-5 [vertebrae] that coaching camp.
“In order that automobile wreck was just like the catalyst that led into me having to withdraw from that battle, which was actually most likely the bottom level in my grownup life. I’ve by no means felt decrease than that, and it’s simply loopy I’m speaking to you … eight years in the past from the day it occurred, and I’m excited to get this chance to go battle Tony.
Ferguson’s dropping streak is greater than twice so long as Chiesa’s at seven straight.
Chiesa understands that neither are on a run to a world title anymore, or something actually near it. But it surely’s a chance to place a darkish time behind him.
“We’re each not on the highest factors of our careers, clearly, however it’s a battle the place it’s like, it’s the one which acquired away from me,” Chiesa mentioned. “So I’m actually excited to battle him and form of lay to relaxation a few of these private demons I had eight years in the past, go on the market lock horns with a man that I’ve had a ton of respect for, [who] at one level was the boogeyman in my weight class.
“So I’m excited for the chance and I like combating in Abu Dhabi. I really feel at dwelling on the market and I solely have so many fights left, and I’m excited that that is considered one of them.”
