Chas Skelly had a tough time preparing for a March 2016 showdown with Darren Elkins.
Skelly was on a four-fight winning streak going into that bout and had some who believed he was ready for a fighter the caliber of Elkins. He ended up losing that fight by unanimous decision, but something was off. “The Scrapper” didn’t exactly have an ideal training camp.
While Skelly may have thought preparation would be business as usual, he ended up suffering concussion issues while training. The issues forced Skelly to cut time on his preparation. Despite knowing something was off, Skelly told Bloody Elbow that securing a paycheck was crucial:
“I couldn’t train. I needed the money, so I couldn’t not take the fight.”
“The Scrapper” said he had no other source of income, which is why he took the fight and powered through it.
“I had no paychecks coming in anymore. So I had to take the fight. If I was with Team Takedown at that time, getting paid from them, it wouldn’t have been an issue. I do a good job budgeting and saving my money. I’m not really complaining how I get paid. I’m just saying that at the time, I had financial needs that needed to be met.”
Skelly competes tonight (May 13) against Jason Knight on the FX preliminary portion of UFC 211. Who do you think walks out of that fight the winner?
