By his own admission, he thrives in the grind, and loves having myriad things on the go, having done each of those secondary jobs during the build to his bout with McGee on Saturday night at State Farm Arena. If he had it his way, Chiesa would work the desk this weekend, breaking from the role just long enough to step into the Octagon and compete before returning to his post, the way Din Thomas does in those instances where he’s cornering a fighter between offering coaching insights on UFC events.
“My initial dream was to get into the UFC,” began Chiesa, who carries a two-fight winning streak into the weekend. “After being on The Ultimate Fighter, I really wanted to be an analyst, be a commentator, and at that point, to make that move, you’ve got to make decisions about ‘How many irons do I want in the fire?’
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“As a fighter, your time is very limited, so you’ve got to find ways to generate different sources of income and stuff like that, but I was like, ‘No, I’m all-in on MMA.’ I pushed all-in and it paid off. I got my opportunities to try to crack the lineup as a broadcaster. I get to do what I love every single day, even the times I gotta stay up super-late because I’m studying fights; I love every second of it.
“This is gonna sound odd, but it’s almost as big a blessing to me as being a competitor, if not more,” he said of getting to work on the broadcast side of things and continuing building that skill set. “I know how I got into the UFC — I’m a good fighter, I’m a world-class fighter — but the broadcasting stuff? I didn’t go to college! I still don’t know how it happened, and that makes me have that much more gratitude for those opportunities because it’s something I was very blessed with, I never take for granted, and something that I love doing; I love it so much.”
