Michael Chiesa wants Kevin Lee rematch
At UFC Fight Night 112 in 2017, Kevin Lee and Michael Chiesa were headlining the show. There, Lee got ahold of Chiesa’s back and locked in a rear naked choke. But, before the 31-year-old tapped or went to sleep, the referee stopped the fight. It was a controversial loss that Chiesa wants to get back.
Since the loss, Chiesa has gone 1-1 including winning his welterweight debut against Carlos Condit at UFC 232. Now, given both he and Lee are welterweights, it is a fight Chiesa would like to run back.
“We seen each other face to face. I saw him at the PI in the locker room before he fought Barboza. And this was before I fought Pettis at 223,” Chiesa said on MMA Frost Radio (transcript via MMA News).
“Let’s run it back. We talked about it. I told him, ‘If you beat me fair and square, that’s fine. I can live with that.’ That’s the nature of the beast. This is a sport. But there was some uncostly intervention for him, but it was costly for me. And, yeah, I definitely want to run it back.”
Although Michael Chiesa currently has a fight booked against Diego Sanchez at UFC 239, he is still interested in the rematch against Lee. And, the 31-year-old would like it to happen fairly soon, whether that means next fight or not is up in the air.
“I’d rather do it sooner than later because I’m a lot older than he is,” he said. “So I don’t want him catching me when I’m in the twilight years of my career and he’s getting into his physical prime. When you’re getting into your early 30s, that’s when you’re in your prime. So I’d rather fight Kevin sooner than later. But I can see the fight happening. It’s just all about timing and trajectory.”
