Spokane native Michael Chiesa is about two weeks away from his fight with Vicente Luque at UFC 265 and he's ready for it.
The fifth ranked fighter in the UFC welterweight division last fought in January of 2021 against Neil Magny. He won, which was his first UFC main event fight. Chiesa came out on top by unanimous decision.
After the biggest victory of his career, he didn't take much time away from improving.
"The most time I took off is like three days," Chiesa said. "I really just kind of stayed on the grind and let my body recharge, but also made improvements on some things technique wise and conditioning wise."
In his last fight, there were no fans because of the coronavirus pandemic.
"The fans, it's been a while," he said. "I'm excited to get back in front of that big arena of 15, 16 thousand people screaming, cheering, yelling. booing, the whole shebang. I'm really looking forward to it."
With this fight, he'll be on the same card with another Spokane native. Julianna Pena will try and claim the women's bantamweight belt against one of the greatest fighters of all-time Amanda Nunes. Chiesa fights before her and then says he'll be locked in.
"I don't care if they're wheeling me out in a paramedic of the hospital, in the back room, whatever, there is no way I'm going to miss it," he said. "But I'll be watching it from victory lane, that's the only place I plan on watching her fight. It'd mean a lot to this city for Julianna to bring that belt home back to the 509."
Speaking of getting a champion's belt, Chiesa thinks he should be in line for one if he wins this upcoming clash.
"Man if I go out there and win, especially a good, solid, dominant performance I don't see why I can't make my claim to fight for the title," Chiesa said. " Why not me? Why can't it be the blue collared kid from Spokane getting a shot at the title?"
Chiesa is known for calling out who he wants to fight after he wins.
That would mean with a win on August 7, it's likely Kamaru Usnan will be the name called out by the Spokane native for the welterweight title.