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By Elias Cepeda



Back in May, lightweight contender Michael Chiesa (14-2) rushed Kevin Lee (15-2) on stage at a press conference after Lee mentioned Chiesa's mother. The two quickly began brawling and had to be separated by promotional staff.



This Sunday Chiesa and Lee will finish their fight with one another. Looking back at the press conference while speaking to the Extra Rounds Podcast, the fighter sounded as if he had no regrets about the scrap even though his mother witnessed it.



"Yeah, she saw it," he told FloCombat.



"Not that she is proud of that, but that's how I was raised. I was raised to defend -- It's second nature for me. But no one wants to see their son get in those kinds of situations."



Despite that very personal and acrimonious start to he and Lee's bout, Chiesa insists that the only thing he is particularly emotionally invested in is positioning himself for a world championship bout.



"Listen, I am emotionally charged [about] winning a world title. That's it," he insisted. "The press conference has nothing to do with my motivation.



"It's going to play no role in the fight for me whatsoever. I'm a highly motivated fighter, and I'm not motivated by anything that happened at the press conference. I'm motivated by becoming world champion.



"That's all I can think about, that's all I care about," he continued. "I don't care about the press conference, I don't care about the drama."



Though he and Lee's presser scrap has been used to sell their Oklahoma City main event this Sunday, Chiesa insists that fans should be focused on the fact that their official contest will likely decide the newest member of the lightweight division's top-tier.



"There is so much more to this fight than some stupid press conference," he explained.



"Why are people talking about this instead of the fact that whoever wins is going into the top five? I think that's more relevant and more important than some stupid, immature scuffle that was partially caused on my behalf. I'm not a particular fan of having to continue to talk about the press conference, especially when I [couldn't] care less about it. I feel like everybody cares about it 100 times more than I do. It's nothing to me."



Chiesa also maintains that the concept of "ring-rust" is nothing to him. The lightweight will be fighting for the first time in well over a year, on Sunday, but doesn't plan on being a step behind his opponent because of it.



"No, not at all. Ring rust is not a factor because my mind is always on the sport," he contended. "So it's impossible for ring rust to become a thing when my mind is always thinking about the sport. I'm always thinking about competing. By the time fight night rolls around it will feel like I've been gone for 14 days, not 14 months."



Chiesa certainly plans on winning this next fight, which he believes should put him into title consideration. The division is still ruled by Conor McGregor, who earned the lightweight championship last November, but has no concrete plans to defend the belt, and instead is scheduled for a spectacle of a boxing contest against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in August.



To keep things flowing at the top of one of the sport's most talent-stacked divisions, Chiesa thinks an interim title is warranted, even though it hasn't been close to a year since the championship was fought for.



"I think the interim title is a good solution," he allowed. "I like that idea. I think it's a good move to get the division going again."



Whoever does fight for that hypothetical interim championship next, however, Chiesa does not think it should be undefeated Phenom Khabib Nurmagomedov, who has been plagued by injuries in recent years. "It will not be with Khabib," Chiesa promised.



"Khabib has to fight one more time. Khabib's tough, don't get me wrong -- guy has a butt load of talent, but he hast to fight one more time," Chiesa said. "[Tony] Ferguson showed up and made weight [for his recently scheduled contest against Nurmagomedov], Khabib didn't."



Should he get another victory this Sunday, Chiesa has a suggestion for who should be next in line for a title fight.



"I'm the man for the job," he ended, simply.

