Michael Chiesa’s next walk to the cage will be his last one.
The UFC lightweight said Monday he will retire following his bout next month at UFC Fight Night 271 (Paramount+) at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle. Chiesa made the announcement while a guest on “The Anik and Florian Podcast.”
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Chiesa (19-7 MMA, 14-7 UFC) is scheduled to fight Carlston Harris (19-7 MMA, 4-3 UFC) on the main card. Chiesa was raised in Spokane, Wash., making events in Seattle about his closest thing to a home fight.
The 38-year-old said the location played a factor since he still has fights left on his deal.
“Yeah, this is my last fight. I’ve been kind of on the fence about it. It’s a hard decision to make,” Chiesa said on the podcast. “I had my first fight when I was 20 years old in 2008. I wanted to fight out this contract – I just signed a new deal before the Court McGee fight. ‘I’m going to fight out this deal, then I’m done.’ It’s not like I want to go into free agency – I love where I’m at. I love the UFC. I have no reason to want to go fight anywhere else. I want to fight the best guys in the world. The best guys in the world are right here, and I’ve been competing with them for 14 years.
“But when they said they’re going back to Seattle – it’s my 22nd UFC fight, 22 is my number, March 28 in my parents’ anniversary. It’s like the universe is telling me something.”
Chiesa won Season 15 of “The Ultimate Fighter” when he choked out Al Iaquinta in 2012. His career has been marked by short streaks and short skids, which mostly has kept him out of top tier of the lightweight title picture. But his resume is littered with some of the best names in the UFC at lightweight and welterweight, where Chiesa moved to in 2018.
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After a three-fight skid to Vicente Luque, Sean Brady and Kevin Holland, Chiesa has rebounded in the past 18 months with submissions of Tony Ferguson and Max Griffin, plus a decision over McGee this past June.
Chiesa hasn’t fought in Washington since the UFC’s July 2013 trip there for UFC on FOX 8. At that event, he was submitted by Jorge Masvidal to close out the prelims. It remains his only MMA loss in the state of Washington.
Chiesa has been a regular fixture as a UFC desk analyst on pre- and post-fight shows for nearly eight years, which makes his post-fighting career already set in place.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Why go home? For Michael Chiesa, it’ll be to retire at UFC Seattle
