Eight years after they have been initially scheduled to compete within the UFC’s octagon, Michael Chiesa will get his probability to combat Tony Ferguson.
Chiesa and Ferguson face off in a welterweight tilt Saturday at UFC Abu Dhabi. The pairing was beforehand set for UFC Struggle Night time 91 in July 2016 earlier than “Maverick” was pressured to withdraw as a result of a again damage. When he was referred to as about returning to the cage, Chiesa was surprised to search out out who he was preventing.
“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 cellphone name, and Danny [Rubenstein], finest supervisor within the recreation, referred to as me, and it was similar to, ‘You’re by no means going to consider who they’re calling me about.’ I’m similar to, I mentioned [Stephen Thompson] first. He’s like, ‘Who’s the one combat you’d need, [that] you’d prefer to have at 170 kilos?’ ‘Wonderboy,’ you recognize, we form of talked about it for some time. He’s like, ‘It’s not him,’ he’s like, ‘Say another person,’ and I neglect 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 yr after being submitted within the first spherical by Kevin Holland at UFC 291 in July 2023. The 36-year-old enters the combat for the primary time on the heels of a three-fight skid.
After receiving the information he could be dealing with Ferguson, Chiesa checked out it as a full-circle expertise.
“I assumed 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 countless. I didn’t anticipate it to be Tony Ferguson.
“It’s ironic that I’m speaking to you 1722695409 as a result of once I was in coaching camp for Tony in 2016, it was … eight years in the past at present I obtained in a extremely dangerous automobile accident, and that was form of the [moment]. I used to be form of going by way 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, obtained a concussion, smashed my head on the window. after which inside a couple 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 combat, 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 combat 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 possibility to place a darkish time behind him.
“We’re each not on the highest factors of our careers, clearly, however it’s a combat the place it’s like, it’s the one which obtained away from me,” Chiesa mentioned. “So I’m actually excited to combat 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 really like preventing 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.”
