Michael Chiesa är nu officiellt en welterviktare

Det gick inte Michael Chiesas väg förra månaden när han mötte Anthony Pettis på UFC 226.

Inte nog med att Chiesa förlorade matchen via submission i första ronden, innan matchen var han även med om sin tuffaste viktnedgång i karriären. Den före detta The Ultimate Fighter-vinnaren missade vikten och fick böta 30 % av sin prissumma.

Lyckligtvis fick 30-åringen inga bestående men efter bantningen men upplevelsen var så pass skrämmande att det fick Chiesa att börja fundera på ett byte av viktklass.

”Maverick” har tävlat i welterviktsklassen tidigare i sin karriär och nu är det alltså klart att han tänker ge det ett försök även i UFC.

Humbled & Hungry • • • In the last few years, I’ve felt my skills as a fighter drastically improve, especially through 2018 but I’ve yet to reflect that. There’s a couple changes that need to be made, one being something new and the other is returning to something from the past. Obviously the new is it’s time for me to test the waters at welterweight. All of my family, many of my teammates and almost all my coaches have been trying to talk me into going up a weight class. I spend the better half of my camps stressed about weight, feeling like a shadow of myself in training and just being miserable doing the thing I love most in the world. I pushed my body very hard this last cut, one of the scariest experiences of my life and I still failed. I don’t want experience that ever again. • The thing from my past I must return to is just being myself. I’m not fit to talk trash, hype fights, banter people and be apart of that trend we see in this sport. It’s not who I am but I let myself fall into what’s now the norm in MMA. I’m back to being the person I once was when I won The Ultimate Fighter, when I was stringing together wins in the UFC, shit even just being who I was before I got to where I am now. Back to my humble, grounded, hard nosed, blue collar ways where I was grinding out wins and just grinding for everything I have because that’s who I really am, that’s what type of man my dad raised me to be. I will never let myself get away from being who I truly am ever again. • • • #visionquest #avanti

A post shared by Michael Chiesa (@mikemav22) on Jul 19, 2018 at 8:11pm PDT

In the last few years, I’ve felt my skills as a fighter drastically improve, especially through 2018 but I’ve yet to reflect that. There’s a couple changes that need to be made, one being something new and the other is returning to something from the past. Obviously the new is it’s time for me to test the waters at welterweight. All of my family, many of my teammates and almost all my coaches have been trying to talk me into going up a weight class. I spend the better half of my camps stressed about weight, feeling like a shadow of myself in training and just being miserable doing the thing I love most in the world. I pushed my body very hard this last cut, one of the scariest experiences of my life and I still failed. I don’t want experience that ever again. The thing from my past I must return to is just being myself. I’m not fit to talk trash, hype fights, banter people and be apart of that trend we see in this sport. It’s not who I am but I let myself fall into what’s now the norm in MMA. I’m back to being the person I once was when I won The Ultimate Fighter, when I was stringing together wins in the UFC, shit even just being who I was before I got to where I am now. Back to my humble, grounded, hard nosed, blue collar ways where I was grinding out wins and just grinding for everything I have because that’s who I really am, that’s what type of man my dad raised me to be. I will never let myself get away from being who I truly am ever again.

Chiesa har ett record på 7-4 i UFC om man räknar med vinsten över Al Iaquinta på The Ultimate Fighter Finale. Han har fem submissionvinster och fem Fight of the Night-bonusar.

Vi önskar Chiesa lycka till i den nya viktklassen!