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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Michael Chiesa, the winner of the first - and only - live season of The Ultimate Fighter, returns to action this December, taking on a tough challenge in Marcus LeVesseur at UFC on Fox 5. The Minnesotan wrestler took the fight on short notice when Chiesa's original opponent, Rafaello Oliveira, suffered an injury late last month.
Though Oliveira has more UFC experience under his belt, LeVesseur's in need of a big win after a loss in his debut and a less than stellar win over Carlo Prater at UFC on FX 5. That drive for a convincing UFC win makes him a very formidable challenge for Chiesa, as he's out to do anything he can to pick up an impressive win.
"I want to win this fight, that's the goal at hand," LeVesseur told MMATorch last week after accepting the fight. "The Prater fight, my back was against the wall and so was his, and it was a must win. Same with this fight here, except his back's not against the wall, and mine's not off the wall quite yet. So I need to get this victory so I can secure myself another fight in the UFC. But this fight first."
After getting a win in front of his hometown crowd last month in Minneapolis, LeVesseur wasn't planning on a quick turnaround. He's still coaches wrestling, and with the season approaching he wasn't eying a fight during that time.
However, with the UFC calling him for an opportunity to fight an Ultimate Fighter winner, one whom LeVesseur thinks he matches up well against, it was an easy call to take the fight.
"It fits, it's a good matchup," LeVesseur said. "He has a little bit of thunder, being the TUF 15 winner. It is a challenge, but I'm looking forward to it... He's a wrestler, I'm a wrestler. We both may try to secure some takedowns in the fight, but he's shown that he can take some hits and likes to kick and punch as well. I was hoping for the Prater fight to be more of a brawl, but he was trying to clinch more than punch."
"But I'm thinking Michael, it might be a little different; kind of what we had expected for the Prater fight. I don't know how much power he has; he has a reach advantage on me. If I can turn it into a Randy Couture-style brawl, that would be ideal. The kid's tough, he's young, he's hungry, he has momentum like myself, so I can see why the UFC called me [for the fight]."
On top of that, LeVesseur feels ready to make a real impression in the Octagon after two fights that didn't go according to plan. In his debut, a mental mistake led to a submission loss against Cody McKenzie, and against Prater, the fight simply didn't go the way he and his team expected, with a lot of pressure added due to fighting at home in Minneapolis.
"The first [UFC] fight out of town, that was just a blur. The first fight in the UFC, it happened very quick," LeVesseur said. "Mentally I thought I was ready, physically I was ready. When that all happened it was just a blur. The last fight at home was a lot of pressure, hometown guy, hometown fight. In the biggest league, fighting a guy who was very tough. It was tons of pressure; I managed it quite well, and I got the victory."
"This next fight, I'm just becoming more and more comfortable with the UFC and what to expect. I'm looking for, not like a shock the world performance, but something a lot more convincing than my last fight."
He thinks he can do just that in this matchup, and though he knows the submission game that Chiesa brings to the cage, he's confident in his wrestling and expects to be fully prepared for anywhere the fight goes.
"I'm very confident in my wrestling as I approach every bout," LeVesseur said. "His last four or five victories have been submissions, chokes. I don't think ever in my fight history that anybody's ever gotten my back in a contest, but I've been on my back in a few fights. I've just got to train; we had a gameplan for the last fight and nothing went to gameplan, so it's basically just adaptation."
"For this fight, we don't have a gameplan, but it's just going to be making sure we're sharp on the feet, wrestling offense, wrestling defense, on top on the ground, and if it happens on bottom on the ground."
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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