Michael Chiesa returned to winning ways on August 3, when he faced Tony Ferguson at UFC Fight Night: Sandhagen vs Nurmagomedov. The pair squared off in the scheduled for three rounds bout at welterweight.
The contest didn’t go the distance. The Aurora, Colorado native defeated the former interim lightweight champion of Oxnard, California via rear-naked choke. Referee Marc Goddard stopped the fight at 3 minutes and 44 seconds into the first round following the tap.
With the victory by submission, Michael Chiesa improved to 17-7. The 36-year-old winner of the inaugural “The Ultimate Fighter: Live” rebounded from three defeats in a row.
“It feels really good DC,” Chiesa said in his post-fight interview with Daniel Cormier. “There’s so much stuff I want to say. It’s been a long road to get back in the win column. But this microphone belongs to Tony Ferguson.”
“Thank you, Abu Dhabi. That’s all I got to say. I want to give this man his time. God bless you guys.”
Tony Ferguson dropped to 25-11. The 40-year-old TUF 13 winner suffered his eighth straight defeat.
“I know I could have done better, “Ferguson said. I know that a little bit more wrestling going into today… Man, I got to give it to Michael. I know we’re going to talk afterwards, but he
was just on point with that hook and it was hard to fight it.”
“I don’t want to retire. I really don’t. But I love the UFC and I don’t want to go anywhere else. So I’m not going to put both gloves down. I’m going to put one and I’m going to keep the other one just in case.”
“I’m going to go home. I’m going to talk to my wife. I’m going give my kids a big ass, hug. I’m going to enjoy the rest of the state here in Abu Dhabi. And I can’t believe that there’s so many of you fans that like us here. Me and DC we go way back.”