{"id":339247,"date":"2020-01-26T09:05:47","date_gmt":"2020-01-26T17:05:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=339247"},"modified":"2020-01-26T09:05:47","modified_gmt":"2020-01-26T17:05:47","slug":"michael-chiesa-says-he-respects-colby-covington-as-a-fighter-but-he-wants-him-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/michael-chiesa-says-he-respects-colby-covington-as-a-fighter-but-he-wants-him-next\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Chiesa says he respects Colby Covington as a fighter, but he wants him next"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>UFC welterweight contender Michael Chiesa says he has respect for Colby Covington as a fighter, but he believes this is the fight that makes sense next.<\/p>\n<p>Covington is one of the most controversial and divisive MMA fighters out there right now. His outspoken and brash personality has fans, media and his fellow fighters divided about him as a person, but there&#8217;s no mistaking that Covington is one of the best welterweights on the planet.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/michael-chiesa-releases-statement-after-win-over-rafael-dos-anjos-at-ufc-raleigh\/\">Following his win over Rafael dos Anjos in the co-main event of UFC Raleigh<\/a>, Chiesa briefly took the mic and called out Covington for an upcoming matchup. After the event, Chiesa spoke to reporters and explained in further detail why he believes a matchup against Covington makes sense.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just beat the No. 5 ranked guy in the world. I always say the most important time to ask for a fight is after you win. You\u2019ve got to capitalize. I\u2019m not out to engage in some verbal pissing match with the guy. I respect his skills. He\u2019s super tough. I\u2019m just trying to get to a world title. I think that\u2019s the fight that makes the most sense when you look at the top five,&#8221; Chiesa said (h\/t <a href=\"https:\/\/mmajunkie.usatoday.com\/2020\/01\/ufc-raleigh-michael-chiesa-explains-colby-covington-callout-after-win\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">MMAjunkie.com<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI said before the fight if I beat Rafael dos Anjos, I\u2019m not fighting anyone who\u2019s less than five. I\u2019m taking his spot. Looking at the landscape of the division, that\u2019s the fight that makes sense. I want to be tested. I want to fight the best, so Colby it is.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Chiesa is a perfect 3-0 since moving up to welterweight with wins over RDA, Diego Sanchez, and Carlos Condit. Covington, meanwhile, is coming off of a fifth-round TKO loss to Kamaru Usman in an epic welterweight title fight at UFC 245. <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/video-colby-covingtons-jaw-is-healing-up-nicely\/\">He broke his jaw in the fight but it is healing up nicely and he should be able to return to the Octagon in July<\/a>, which is when Chiesa wants to fight him.<\/p>\n<p>Do you think the UFC will grant Michael Chiesa his wish and give him Colby Covington next?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UFC welterweight contender Michael Chiesa says he has respect for Colby Covington as a fighter, but he believes this is the fight that makes sense next. Covington is one of the most controversial and divisive MMA fighters out there right now. His outspoken and brash personality has fans, media and his fellow fighters divided about [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54477,"featured_media":286689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10290,39610],"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 says he respects Colby Covington as a fighter, but he wants him next | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"UFC welterweight contender Michael Chiesa says he has respect for Colby Covington as a fighter, but he believes this is the fight that makes sense next.\" \/>\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\/ufc\/michael-chiesa-says-he-respects-colby-covington-as-a-fighter-but-he-wants-him-next\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Michael Chiesa says he respects Colby Covington as a fighter, but he wants him next | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"UFC welterweight contender Michael Chiesa says he has respect for Colby Covington as a fighter, but he believes this is the fight that makes sense next.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/michael-chiesa-says-he-respects-colby-covington-as-a-fighter-but-he-wants-him-next\/\" \/>\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=\"2020-01-26T17:05:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/Michael-Chiesa-2.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=\"Adam D Martin\" \/>\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=\"Adam D Martin\" \/>\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\/ufc\/michael-chiesa-says-he-respects-colby-covington-as-a-fighter-but-he-wants-him-next\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/michael-chiesa-says-he-respects-colby-covington-as-a-fighter-but-he-wants-him-next\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Adam D Martin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/592783aae67f8fc778dab51d7d3246b1\"},\"headline\":\"Michael Chiesa says he respects Colby Covington as a fighter, but he wants him next\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-01-26T17:05:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-01-26T17:05:47+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/michael-chiesa-says-he-respects-colby-covington-as-a-fighter-but-he-wants-him-next\/\"},\"wordCount\":369,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Michael Chiesa\",\"UFC\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/michael-chiesa-says-he-respects-colby-covington-as-a-fighter-but-he-wants-him-next\/#respond\"]}],\"copyrightYear\":\"2020\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/michael-chiesa-says-he-respects-colby-covington-as-a-fighter-but-he-wants-him-next\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/michael-chiesa-says-he-respects-colby-covington-as-a-fighter-but-he-wants-him-next\/\",\"name\":\"Michael Chiesa says he respects Colby Covington as a fighter, but he wants him next | BJPenn.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-01-26T17:05:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-01-26T17:05:47+00:00\",\"description\":\"UFC welterweight contender Michael Chiesa says he has respect for Colby Covington as a fighter, but he believes this is the fight that makes sense next.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/michael-chiesa-says-he-respects-colby-covington-as-a-fighter-but-he-wants-him-next\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/michael-chiesa-says-he-respects-colby-covington-as-a-fighter-but-he-wants-him-next\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/michael-chiesa-says-he-respects-colby-covington-as-a-fighter-but-he-wants-him-next\/#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\":\"UFC\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Michael Chiesa says he respects Colby Covington as a fighter, but he wants him next\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"description\":\"MMA &amp; UFC News, Results &amp; Fight Videos\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png\",\"width\":600,\"height\":148,\"caption\":\"| BJPenn.com\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/bjpenn\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/bjpenn\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/bjpenndotcom\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/0fficialbjpenn\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bjpenndotcom\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/592783aae67f8fc778dab51d7d3246b1\",\"name\":\"Adam D Martin\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/author\/adam-d-martin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Michael Chiesa says he respects Colby Covington as a fighter, but he wants him next | BJPenn.com","description":"UFC welterweight contender Michael Chiesa says he has respect for Colby Covington as a fighter, but he believes this is the fight that makes sense next.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/michael-chiesa-says-he-respects-colby-covington-as-a-fighter-but-he-wants-him-next\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Michael Chiesa says he respects Colby Covington as a fighter, but he wants him next | BJPenn.com","og_description":"UFC welterweight contender Michael Chiesa says he has respect for Colby Covington as a fighter, but he believes this is the fight that makes sense next.","og_url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/michael-chiesa-says-he-respects-colby-covington-as-a-fighter-but-he-wants-him-next\/","og_site_name":"| BJPenn.com","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn","article_published_time":"2020-01-26T17:05:47+00:00","og_image":[{"width":696,"height":399,"url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/Michael-Chiesa-2.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Adam D Martin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@bjpenndotcom","twitter_site":"@bjpenndotcom","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Adam D Martin","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/michael-chiesa-says-he-respects-colby-covington-as-a-fighter-but-he-wants-him-next\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/michael-chiesa-says-he-respects-colby-covington-as-a-fighter-but-he-wants-him-next\/"},"author":{"name":"Adam D Martin","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/592783aae67f8fc778dab51d7d3246b1"},"headline":"Michael Chiesa says he respects Colby Covington as a fighter, but he wants him next","datePublished":"2020-01-26T17:05:47+00:00","dateModified":"2020-01-26T17:05:47+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/michael-chiesa-says-he-respects-colby-covington-as-a-fighter-but-he-wants-him-next\/"},"wordCount":369,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Michael Chiesa","UFC"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/michael-chiesa-says-he-respects-colby-covington-as-a-fighter-but-he-wants-him-next\/#respond"]}],"copyrightYear":"2020","copyrightHolder":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization"}},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/michael-chiesa-says-he-respects-colby-covington-as-a-fighter-but-he-wants-him-next\/","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/michael-chiesa-says-he-respects-colby-covington-as-a-fighter-but-he-wants-him-next\/","name":"Michael Chiesa says he respects Colby Covington as a fighter, but he wants him next | BJPenn.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website"},"datePublished":"2020-01-26T17:05:47+00:00","dateModified":"2020-01-26T17:05:47+00:00","description":"UFC welterweight contender Michael Chiesa says he has respect for Colby Covington as a fighter, but he believes this is the fight that makes sense next.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/michael-chiesa-says-he-respects-colby-covington-as-a-fighter-but-he-wants-him-next\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/michael-chiesa-says-he-respects-colby-covington-as-a-fighter-but-he-wants-him-next\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/michael-chiesa-says-he-respects-colby-covington-as-a-fighter-but-he-wants-him-next\/#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":"UFC","item":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Michael Chiesa says he respects Colby Covington as a fighter, but he wants him next"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/","name":"| BJPenn.com","description":"MMA &amp; UFC News, Results &amp; Fight Videos","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization","name":"| BJPenn.com","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png","contentUrl":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/bj_penn_logo_amp.png","width":600,"height":148,"caption":"| BJPenn.com"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/instagram.com\/bjpenn","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/bjpenn","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/bjpenndotcom\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/0fficialbjpenn","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn","https:\/\/twitter.com\/bjpenndotcom"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/592783aae67f8fc778dab51d7d3246b1","name":"Adam D Martin","url":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/author\/adam-d-martin\/"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339247"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54477"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}