Lightweight fighters Michael Chiesa and Kevin Lee are going to be headlining this Sunday Night’s UFC Fight Night: Oklahoma City card.
Despite their brief altercation at the UFC Summer Kickoff Press Conference, the TUF champion feels no ill will towards Lee.
“I’ve still got respect for him. I respect him as an athlete. He’s a tough kid,” Chiesa said to MMA Junkie. “We’ve been in the training room together a few times. I never had a bad interaction with him up until the press conference. Contrary to all these interviews and the shit the kid’s saying, I was just on the elevator with him earlier. We were talking. … It’s just funny to me. It’s all funny to me. Nothing bad to say about him. He’s just a kid.”
Lee did bring up Chiesa’s mom again in a recent interview, as bringing up the fighter’s mother was what sparked the brawl at the press conference.
In the end, the TUF champion just feels like he has to protect his mother.
“None at all,” Chiesa said. “I was raised a certain way. My dad was very protective of my mom, and that’s just what I was raised around. That was just one momentary lapse of character for me. It was kind of instinctive. It would never happen again. … He thinks he’s got some mental edge on me. I think he’s very, very sadly mistaken.”
UFC Fight Night: Oklahoma City takes place on Sunday, June 25 from the Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma with Michael Chiesa and Kevin Lee headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, with a post-show podcast to follow.
