Chiesa at 205, glad he no longer cuts to 155

Michael Chiesa appeared recently on The MMA Hour and discussed why he is moving up to welterweight, after winning TUF 15 at lightweight, fighting nine times at 155, and missing weight his last fight.

It’s just nice not having to stress so much about my weight,” said Chiesa, as transcribed by Jeff Cain for MMA Weekly. “When I’m fighting at 155, I’m not a small guy. I’m six-foot-two. I’ve got a decent frame and I used to have to stress about my weight before I’d even got into camp and from then my camp was just miserable. Even if I eat right and do the right things, I’m still a big guy. Right now, I’m 205 pounds. I’m not a small guy.

I’m just glad that I’m done fighting the weight. I’m ready to just focus more on being a fighter and being an athlete. It’s like I tell people, I get tired of training three times a day just to be some scrawny dude. I’m ready to be a big athlete. I want to be a big, fast, strong athlete. I know I have technical skills to go with it that I think I could have some success at welterweight. My aspirations have been the same. I’m still going to work toward winning the UFC world title, so I’m very happy with my decision so far.

The biggest thing for me is, I’ve been doing this for over ten years, and I love it. It’s a blessing to be able to get up and compete and train and make fighting my job, but it started to lose its luster when all I’m doing is just killing myself. This used to be fun to me. Now it’s like, this is fun again.”

I don’t have to stress about making this certain weight. I don’t have to eat spinach and egg whites year round. I can eat, and I can be an athlete, and I can lift weights, and I don’t have to just focus on cutting weight all the time. I can focus on becoming a better fighter. That was my biggest focus. I’m tired of focusing on my weight.

I need to focus on being a better fighter. I have deficiencies I need to work on and it’s hard to do that and enjoy your training when you’re just focused on hitting a certain number on the scale.

Chiesa fights former interim champion Carlos Condit at UFC 232 on December 29.