The Ultimate Fighter 15 champion Michael Chiesa is done with the UFC’s lightweight division after 11 bouts. In an interview with MMA Fighting, ‘Maverick’ claimed he was unable to fight at his full potential while cutting weight to make the weight class’ 155 lb limit.

So, for his next outing, Chiesa will make his welterweight debut, a decision he claims to be a strategic one, because he plans to get back into title contention as quickly as possible in 2019.

“Just to get back to contention,” Chiesa said. “I got as high as being ranked 7th at lightweight and I really believe this deep down to my bones that I was really only fighting to half my potential. I really feel like going up to 170 I’m going to really be able to show my skill set. I’m not gonna be a small welterweight. I’m bigger than probably 80 percent of the guys that are already welterweights right now.

“So my goal for 2019: win fights. Get in the top-10. Maybe getting closer to the top-5 by the end of 2019. But my long term goal is still the same. People may say I’m crazy. A lot of people say I can’t pull it off. I don’t give a f**k what they say. I know deep down I’m destined to be a world champion and maybe it’s to be attained in the most prestigious division in the UFC at welterweight. So that is my long term goal, but for now 2019, end in the top-10.”

Chiesa, who missed weight by one-and-a-half pounds in his last outing, a submission loss to former champion Anthony Pettis, says he feels good in his new class and relieved to not having to worry about aggressively cutting weight anymore.

““I can tell I’ve probably gained about six pounds of muscle in the past two-and-a-half months,” Chiesa said. “I just feel good, to not have to stress about weight — to some people I sound like a psycho because I’m like, ‘I’m only a little more than 30 pounds over’, they’re like, ‘That’s still 30 pounds.’ Yeah, well it beats 50.

“It beats having to cut all that weight and if you see the trend nowadays, look at Dustin Poirier, look at Kelvin Gastelum, look at Robert Whittaker. They’re guys that are making that 15-pound jump and they’re killing it right now, so I just think that the trend now is to go to the weight class that’s most suited for your body. I was still part of that trend where it was see how low you can get, get as small as you can get, be the biggest guy in your weight class and it started to burn me out.”

Scheduled to take on former interim welterweight champion Carlos Condit, Chiesa states fighting top guys is exactly what he desires in his new weight class.

““Those are the challenges I’m looking for,” Chiesa said. “This is a guy that could be the toughest test of my career. He’s a former world champion, those are the types of guys I want to fight. Anthony Pettis was my first shot at a former UFC champion and that’s a win that I wanted to get really badly.

“To beat somebody that held the title, that had the thing that I’m striving for, I need to get that win under my belt and I like the challenges that he presents.”

Michael Chiesa vs. Carlos Condit is slated for UFC 232 on December 29, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The card will be headlined by a rematch for the light heavyweight championship between former titleholder Jon Jones and challenger Alexander Gustafsson.