Michael Chiesa believes fighting Khamzat Chimaev right now isn’t a smart move for a lot of welterweight contenders.
Ever since July, Chimaev has been the talk of the town with three dominant wins and now Dana White has said his next fight will be the main event against a ranked guy. The promotion wanted it to be against Stephen Thompson, yet “Wonderboy” didn’t have much interest and Chiesa doesn’t blame him.
“If he beats me, he takes my spot. If I beat him, they’re like, ‘Oh, it’s a flash in the pan.’ You know what I mean?” Chiesa said to the media on Fight Island (via MMAJunkie). “I probably don’t move up the rankings either. It’s like, dude, I’m trying to fight for a world title. You’ve got to do smart business. … The guy is legit. I respect his skills. I just don’t know if that’s the fight I want right now. He beats a guy and gets ranked? That’s a different story.
“I can see why all these guys don’t want to fight him. “It’s not that they’re (scared). There’s not a guy on the roster that’s afraid of anybody. When someone says, ‘Joe Schmo is afraid of John Smith?’ Like, (expletive) no.”
For Michael Chiesa, he says if Chimaev were to go out and beat someone like a Thompson he then would be interested in the fight. Yet, for now, he doesn’t think beating him puts him any closer to his goal of winning the belt.
