Neil Magny says he used lengthy downtime well, wants Michael Chiesa after UFC 248

LAS VEGAS – Neil Magny beat Li Jingliang with a unanimous decision Saturday on the main card at UFC 248 in Las Vegas.

Take a look inside the fight with Magny, who got back in the win column after the longest layoff of his career. He has won three of his past four.

Result: Neil Magny def. Li Jingliang via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Updated records: Magny (22-7 MMA, 15-6 UFC), Jingliang (17-6 MMA, 9-4 UFC)
Key stat: Magny outstruck Jingliang 123-16 and landed 65 percent of his strikes.

Magny on the fight’s key moment

“We went back and looked at my last five fights, the wins and losses, and really looked at where I could improve. One of the biggest things we found was foot positioning. I feel like we addressed that well tonight. Another thing is pressure. I wanted to sit back and calculate a little bit more, so it’s been improvement all around.”

Magny on his long time off

“It feels great to finally get back in there and win. Over the last year now, I’ve been finding myself in a real down place. I’ve put that all behind me now and came out on top tonight, so it feels great. In a weird way, this time off has been a blessing. It allowed me to spend a lot of time with family, even grow my family back at home. I also made some changes in my camp and made sure we were doing everything as well as possible.”

Magny on what he wants next

“I think this gets me right back in the mix. The division has been shaken up a bit since I’ve been gone, but I showed tonight that I can jump back in there with the best of them, so I’d love to jump back in there with (Michael) Chiesa.”

To hear more from Magny, check out the video of the full post-fight interview above.