Michael Chiesa Says Family Targeted After His Lawsuit Against Conor McGregor
Last month, Michael
Chiesa filed a lawsuit against Conor
McGregor as a result of the Irishman's April attack of a
charter bus which contained several Ultimate Fighting Championship fighters
including Chiesa.
McGregor threw a loading dolly at the front window of the bus smashing it and injuring the forehead of Chiesa in the process, which forced him to withdraw from his scheduled main-card tilt with Anthony Pettis. A warrant was issued for McGregor’s arrest and the former champion later pled guilty to disorderly conduct.
Chiesa claims he suffered “severe emotional distress, mental trauma
and/or bodily harm” as a result of “assault, battery and
intentional infliction of emotional distress.”
“Maverick” was a guest on "The MMA Hour" on Monday and told host Luke Thomas that he’s become a target ever since the attack on the bus and fans have started targeting his family as well as a result of the ongoing lawsuit.
“Anybody can say whatever they want to me. This is about me, this isn’t about my family. And, you know, today hasn’t been great.”
Chiesa believes McGregor has played a part in how modern MMA fans act these days with little to no respect given to other fighters. The 30 year-old believes fans look up to the Irishman and want to replicate the way he conducts himself towards other fighters which is creating a toxic culture.
“I think it’s bad,” Chiesa said, asked about whether he thought trash talk in MMA is going too far. “In the era when it was Chuck Liddell and Matt Hughes and those guys, MMA fans weren’t the way they are now. They weren’t mean, they weren’t volatile, they weren’t calling people names, bantering their social media; granted, social media platforms weren’t where they were now, but it’s definitely like as athletes we have a fanbase, some smaller than others, where they follow us and they emulate us in a lot of different ways. And I think that when we’re promoting fights by talking s**t to each other, belittling each other and all that, the fans they absorb that and I think that that’s what creates this toxic fanbase.
“I hate hearing people say, ‘MMA fans are the worst.’ It’s like, I don’t want to say that because I think MMA fans are great but in the same sense I don’t ever see people that don’t like LeBron James say volatile, mean ass s**t about him. But for some reason MMA fans, they throw a lot of shade to a lot of the athletes and it can be pretty bad.”
Chiesa is the first to put his hand up when it comes to verbal and physical altercations he’s had in the past, such as the one involving UFC lightweight Kevin Lee where Chiesa took offense to remarks Lee made about his mother. However, he believes that was a heat of the moment reaction rather than something premediated to try and get into the head of his opponent.
In Chiesa’s last fight in July he took on former UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis in a fight that was meant to happen back in April at UFC 223 before Chiesa was forced to withdraw as a result of the bus attack. Pettis finished Chiesa on the night via submission although he was disappointed in himself for how he tried to create animosity between the pair for the sake of hyping the fight.
“I think there’s a certain line. I think if it’s authentic, let it happen,” Chiesa said. “For instance, with me and Kevin, when we had our beef. That was real. There was nothing scripted, there was nothing staged there, that wasn’t forced. Dude piped off about my mom, I flipped out. That created authentic heat. The Pettis thing was just me forcing something.”
Chiesa will now continue his UFC career as a welterweight, claiming the cut to lightweight was becoming more difficult on his six-foot-one body. He is scheduled to fight UFC veteran Carlos Condit at UFC 232 on Dec. 29 in Las Vegas in his debut at 170 pounds and says his days as a trash talker are over.
“I learned my lesson,” Chiesa said of the Pettis fight. “I don’t know if that’s why I was meant to lose, I got beat by a better guy that night, but you can’t just look at it like that. You’ve got to take more from it and I think that was just like a reality check. Even if I might not get more followers on my Instagram, I’m just not going to be that guy that talks s**t anymore. That’s just not who I am. That’s not how I was raised. That was not my upbringing.
“I’m a blue collar guy from Spokane, Washington, who was raised to just be respectful, be a sportsman, and just speak with your performances, and I’m glad that I’m back to my old ways.”
McGregor threw a loading dolly at the front window of the bus smashing it and injuring the forehead of Chiesa in the process, which forced him to withdraw from his scheduled main-card tilt with Anthony Pettis. A warrant was issued for McGregor’s arrest and the former champion later pled guilty to disorderly conduct.
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“Maverick” was a guest on "The MMA Hour" on Monday and told host Luke Thomas that he’s become a target ever since the attack on the bus and fans have started targeting his family as well as a result of the ongoing lawsuit.
“I’m gonna tread lightly with this, obviously I can’t say a whole
lot. But it just has not been good,” Chiesa told Thomas. “Even my
girlfriend and my mom get messages and comments. They’re not a part
of this and it’s kind of a shame when — my mom’s a sensitive lady
and I do my best to protect her and stuff. And when she tells me
about some of the mean things that are getting sent her way it’s
really, it’s a shame.
“Anybody can say whatever they want to me. This is about me, this isn’t about my family. And, you know, today hasn’t been great.”
Chiesa believes McGregor has played a part in how modern MMA fans act these days with little to no respect given to other fighters. The 30 year-old believes fans look up to the Irishman and want to replicate the way he conducts himself towards other fighters which is creating a toxic culture.
“I think it’s bad,” Chiesa said, asked about whether he thought trash talk in MMA is going too far. “In the era when it was Chuck Liddell and Matt Hughes and those guys, MMA fans weren’t the way they are now. They weren’t mean, they weren’t volatile, they weren’t calling people names, bantering their social media; granted, social media platforms weren’t where they were now, but it’s definitely like as athletes we have a fanbase, some smaller than others, where they follow us and they emulate us in a lot of different ways. And I think that when we’re promoting fights by talking s**t to each other, belittling each other and all that, the fans they absorb that and I think that that’s what creates this toxic fanbase.
“I hate hearing people say, ‘MMA fans are the worst.’ It’s like, I don’t want to say that because I think MMA fans are great but in the same sense I don’t ever see people that don’t like LeBron James say volatile, mean ass s**t about him. But for some reason MMA fans, they throw a lot of shade to a lot of the athletes and it can be pretty bad.”
Chiesa is the first to put his hand up when it comes to verbal and physical altercations he’s had in the past, such as the one involving UFC lightweight Kevin Lee where Chiesa took offense to remarks Lee made about his mother. However, he believes that was a heat of the moment reaction rather than something premediated to try and get into the head of his opponent.
In Chiesa’s last fight in July he took on former UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis in a fight that was meant to happen back in April at UFC 223 before Chiesa was forced to withdraw as a result of the bus attack. Pettis finished Chiesa on the night via submission although he was disappointed in himself for how he tried to create animosity between the pair for the sake of hyping the fight.
“I think there’s a certain line. I think if it’s authentic, let it happen,” Chiesa said. “For instance, with me and Kevin, when we had our beef. That was real. There was nothing scripted, there was nothing staged there, that wasn’t forced. Dude piped off about my mom, I flipped out. That created authentic heat. The Pettis thing was just me forcing something.”
Chiesa will now continue his UFC career as a welterweight, claiming the cut to lightweight was becoming more difficult on his six-foot-one body. He is scheduled to fight UFC veteran Carlos Condit at UFC 232 on Dec. 29 in Las Vegas in his debut at 170 pounds and says his days as a trash talker are over.
“I learned my lesson,” Chiesa said of the Pettis fight. “I don’t know if that’s why I was meant to lose, I got beat by a better guy that night, but you can’t just look at it like that. You’ve got to take more from it and I think that was just like a reality check. Even if I might not get more followers on my Instagram, I’m just not going to be that guy that talks s**t anymore. That’s just not who I am. That’s not how I was raised. That was not my upbringing.
“I’m a blue collar guy from Spokane, Washington, who was raised to just be respectful, be a sportsman, and just speak with your performances, and I’m glad that I’m back to my old ways.”
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