Michael Chiesa goes to battle for fairly some time longer.
Chiesa faces Max Griffin at UFC 310 in a preliminary bout on Dec. 7 at T-Cellular Enviornment in Las Vegas. After defeating Tony Ferguson at UFC Saudi Arabia in August, Chiesa shared that if he had misplaced the battle, he seemingly would’ve retired.
With a refreshed lease on the battle sport, and utilizing the consolation of his house base to his benefit, Chiesa’s thoughts is correct as he prepares for his twentieth stroll to the octagon.
“No, my uncle advised me to give up [saying retirement],” Chiesa advised MMA Preventing. “I simply know that once I’m speaking about eager to name it a profession earlier than the Tony battle, it was simply because this sport is 99 % psychological. So I’m having psychological struggles two out of the three fights in that shedding streak, and if I couldn’t right that by now, then, yeah, it might be imminent.
“However that’s not going to occur on Dec. 7. The end result doesn’t change something. I nonetheless wish to compete, particularly if you’re speaking about UFC Seattle being on the horizon. Dana sort of teased that at a press convention — you suppose I’m going to overlook a chance to battle in Seattle once more? Hell no. And on the finish of the day, Max Griffin’s not going to beat me. It’s simply not going to occur. I do know I’m in for a troublesome battle. I do know what I’ve to do to get the job executed, however I’m right here for it. I’m excited and all of it revolves round my head being in the appropriate house. If my head wasn’t in the appropriate house, I’m going through an uphill battle towards a particularly robust fighter in Max Griffin, however my head’s in the appropriate spot. My coaching’s been good, my physique feels nice, all the things’s coming collectively for me to win this battle.
“So I’ve little doubt in my thoughts I win this battle, after which I patiently watch for that announcement of UFC Seattle.”
Previous to the win over Ferguson, Chiesa had misplaced three straight, together with stoppage losses to Vicente Luque and Kevin Holland, together with a choice loss to Sean Brady. Chiesa was OK together with his exhibiting towards Brady, nevertheless it was the Holland battle that hit house that he wasn’t competing to the very best to his means — particularly from a psychological perspective.
As he prepares to face one other welterweight veteran in Griffin, Chiesa is ready to pinpoint the place issues went improper, and the way they’ve been corrected.
“For me, it’s at all times battling worry on battle day,” Chiesa defined. “All people battles worry in battle camp. Most fighters are fairly trustworthy about how typically you concentrate on the implications of what comes with the battle and for those who get injured and issues like that, and I feel I simply dwelled on it an excessive amount of and I feel the issue was [training[ in Las Vegas. I’m by myself — I have friends there, but it’s not the same as home. At home, I’m with my wife, I’m with my dog, I’m with my team, I’m with my people every day, where in Vegas, I get done at the gym and I’m just by myself.
“So I kind of would get trapped in my own thoughts and when you get trapped in your own thoughts, things start to kind of snowball, and that snowball turns into an avalanche, and then the next thing you know, that avalanche is barreling down that mountain getting ready to wipe you out. I think that’s just for me, it’s just really overthinking the worst outcomes. I’m very aware of what could go right and what could go wrong as I have been for every fight of my career, and I just think the times when I’m by myself in Las Vegas I really make those things to be a lot bigger than what they are. It’s just not a good place to be in.
“Fear is good. Fear makes you sharp, but you don’t wanna fight fearful. When I go back and watch that Kevin Holland fight, I fought him scared and you can’t fight scared. When you fight really bad things happen to you. You have to fight fearless. When you fight fearless. I feel like you’re not putting yourself in harm’s way as much, but when you fight scared, you’re just begging to get — for lack of better words — f*cked up. So that just will never happen again. Ever, ever again.”
