Chas Skelly is competing on the UFC 211 preliminary card against fellow featherweight prospect Jason Knight.
UFC 211 is taking place in Dallas, Texas and Skelly is excited for a hometown fight so all of his supporters can see him compete live.
“For me, with this fight, more than gaining buzz around my name, or getting more followers or people to watch me,” Skelly told MMA Junkie Radio, “I wanted to fight at my home town so people from Azle could come out and watch, the people I grew up with. It’s impossible for them to get out and go watch me anywhere else. Dallas is really the only place they could come, unless there’s a card in Forth Worth or something like that. Tickets are expensive, hotel rooms are expensive, and people can’t afford to travel and take a whole weekend and take their family and come watch me fight. So what I wanted was to fight in front of my fans and the people who’ve been following me basically my whole life, watching me wrestle since I was a kid, coming up through high school and college.”
Skelly is looking to pick up his seventh win under the UFC banner and also break into the top 15 of the featherweight division at UFC 211.
The fighter has won six of eight fights under the UFC banner, but the fighter learned more from his two losses that those six wins.
“I think those losses taught me, more than anything, that you have to be smart,” Skelly said. “One of the losses taught me I have to be smart and make better decisions with when to take fights and not to take fights. The Elkins fight, I wasn’t prepared for it. My camp was just awful – no preparation. I couldn’t stay in the gym. I think it just taught me to be smarter with my career and be persistent. Keep training even outside of camps – stay in shape. Eat right, make the weight cuts easier on myself. That’s something that I’ve really really stressed in my last couple of camps.”
UFC 211 takes place on Saturday, May 13 from the American Airlines Arena in Dallas, Texas with Stipe Miocic and Junior Dos Santos headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, with a post-show podcast to follow.
