{"id":277604,"date":"2018-06-01T08:02:24","date_gmt":"2018-06-01T15:02:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=277604"},"modified":"2018-06-01T08:02:24","modified_gmt":"2018-06-01T15:02:24","slug":"michael-chiesa-explains-why-he-considers-tony-ferguson-the-true-lightweight-champion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/michael-chiesa\/michael-chiesa-explains-why-he-considers-tony-ferguson-the-true-lightweight-champion\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Chiesa explains why he considers Tony Ferguson the true lightweight champion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Michael Chiesa, who battles Anthony Pettis at UFC 226 this July 7 in Las Vegas, considers Tony Ferguson \u2014 not Khabib Nurmagomedov \u2014 the true UFC lightweight champion of the UFC. Chiesa explained why he feels this way on a recent episode of Submission Radio.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"UFC 226: Michael Chiesa on Anthony Pettis Fight Being Rebooked, State of the 155 Division\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xf-SYtZa6qI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p id=\"A48d12\">\u201cIn my eyes, Tony Ferguson\u2019s the champion,\u201d Chiesa said (transcribed by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloodyelbow.com\/2018\/6\/1\/17416114\/ufc-michael-chiesa-in-my-eyes-tony-ferguson-is-the-lightweight-champion-khabib-nurmagomedov-mma-news\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">BloodyElbow<\/a>). \u201cI mean, his win streak has a lot of prestigious names to it. You know, he beat\u00a0Kevin Lee, he beat\u00a0Rafael dos Anjos, he beat\u00a0Edson Barboza, he\u2019s got that long laundry list of guys in his win streak.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"iLxipC\">\u201cSo, I look at Tony as the champion. But, you know, I\u2019m not taking anything away from Khabib. He\u2019s got, what, 25-0, 26-0 record all together? So, his win streak\u2019s insane, but I look at Tony as the champion. Now, if Tony and Khabib fight, who knows how that fight goes, but just in my eyes I think that Tony\u2019s the champion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Chiesa then added that, while he&#8217;s obviously interested in challenging for the title, he&#8217;s most interested in fighting Ferguson, who he considers the toughest fight in the division.<\/p>\n<p id=\"SQQFYd\">\u201cActually, of all the guys, I\u2019d rather fight Tony,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Just because Tony and I were supposed to fight in 2016 and that never came to fruition. And I look at Tony as the toughest match-up for me. With that being said, I think him being the toughest match-up for me will bring out the best in me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"Karkr1\">\u201cI\u2019m the type of guy where I feel like if you throw me in against the guy that\u2019s gonna be my hardest match-up, I think that\u2019s gonna bring out the best in me, and I know that the best of me can beat anybody on any given day to become the world champion. So, Tony is the fight that I like for myself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What do you think of Michael Chiesa&#8217;s take on the lightweight title situation?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>This article first appeared on\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>BJPenn.com<\/i><\/span><\/a><i>\u00a0on 6\/1\/2018. <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Michael Chiesa, who battles Anthony Pettis at UFC 226 this July 7 in Las Vegas, considers Tony Ferguson \u2014 not Khabib Nurmagomedov \u2014 the true UFC lightweight champion of the UFC. Chiesa explained why he feels this way on a recent episode of Submission Radio. \u201cIn my eyes, Tony Ferguson\u2019s the champion,\u201d Chiesa said (transcribed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54430,"featured_media":273367,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10290],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.7 (Yoast SEO v19.14) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Michael Chiesa explains why he considers Tony Ferguson the true lightweight champion | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/michael-chiesa\/michael-chiesa-explains-why-he-considers-tony-ferguson-the-true-lightweight-champion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Michael Chiesa explains why he considers Tony Ferguson the true lightweight champion | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Michael Chiesa, who battles Anthony Pettis at UFC 226 this July 7 in Las Vegas, considers Tony Ferguson \u2014 not Khabib Nurmagomedov \u2014 the true UFC lightweight champion of the UFC. Chiesa explained why he feels this way on a recent episode of Submission Radio. \u201cIn my eyes, Tony Ferguson\u2019s the champion,\u201d Chiesa said (transcribed [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/michael-chiesa\/michael-chiesa-explains-why-he-considers-tony-ferguson-the-true-lightweight-champion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"| BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-06-01T15:02:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/Michael-Chiesa.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"696\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"399\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tom Taylor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tom Taylor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/michael-chiesa\/michael-chiesa-explains-why-he-considers-tony-ferguson-the-true-lightweight-champion\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/michael-chiesa\/michael-chiesa-explains-why-he-considers-tony-ferguson-the-true-lightweight-champion\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Tom Taylor\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/e1a3f1e5a045aeaf5b59aa1549a06a87\"},\"headline\":\"Michael Chiesa explains why he considers Tony Ferguson the true lightweight champion\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-06-01T15:02:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-06-01T15:02:24+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/michael-chiesa\/michael-chiesa-explains-why-he-considers-tony-ferguson-the-true-lightweight-champion\/\"},\"wordCount\":352,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Michael Chiesa\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2018\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/michael-chiesa\/michael-chiesa-explains-why-he-considers-tony-ferguson-the-true-lightweight-champion\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/michael-chiesa\/michael-chiesa-explains-why-he-considers-tony-ferguson-the-true-lightweight-champion\/\",\"name\":\"Michael Chiesa explains why he considers Tony Ferguson the true lightweight champion | BJPenn.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-06-01T15:02:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-06-01T15:02:24+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/michael-chiesa\/michael-chiesa-explains-why-he-considers-tony-ferguson-the-true-lightweight-champion\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/michael-chiesa\/michael-chiesa-explains-why-he-considers-tony-ferguson-the-true-lightweight-champion\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/michael-chiesa\/michael-chiesa-explains-why-he-considers-tony-ferguson-the-true-lightweight-champion\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"MMA News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Michael Chiesa\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/michael-chiesa\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Michael Chiesa explains why he considers Tony Ferguson the true lightweight champion\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"description\":\"MMA &amp; 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