Neil Magny is looking at two possible names for his next fight.
Magny (22-7 MMA, 15-6 UFC) returned from a 16-month layoff to beat the streaking Li Jingliang at UFC 248 and is now looking to re-enter the welterweight rankings.
Winner of three of his last four, Magny is eyeing matchups with Michael Chiesa and Geoff Neal, but won’t fault them if they don’t want to fight him.
“Guys like Mike Chiesa definitely are on the radar,” Magny told MMA Junkie. “But it’s one of those things in this sport where guys get ranked and all of a sudden they stop looking behind for competition and they just only have their eyes set on a number and that kinda thing. I can’t fault the guy, I was in the same boat before, where because I was ranked higher than a particular person, I thought that I should challenge myself against someone who’s ranked above or close to me. So I can’t actually fault someone for making that decision.
“But, at the end of the day, I’m just ready to get back in there and test myself against the best. So guys like Mike Chiesa, Geoff Neal, those are guys who are on my radar, and I’m looking forward to competing against (them) very soon here.”
Magny offered to step in and face Marvin Vettori at 185 pounds last week. Vettori was scheduled to face Karl Roberson at UFC on ESPN+ 29, but Roberson fell ill due to a botched weight cut.
With his coaches already in Florida to corner his teammates, Justin Gaethje and Drew Dober, Magny offered to face Vettori on the May 16 card, but the fight never came to fruition. Vettori agreed to the matchup but wanted the fight at light heavyweight, which was too heavy for Magny, who would have had to balloon up.
Though he didn’t get to fight this past Saturday, Magny said he’s ready to go as soon as May 30 but understands he might have a difficult time finding opponents in the current circumstances.
“I think Sean Shelby is getting annoyed with me at this point,” Magny said. “I’m texting him and emailing him at least three, four times a week about getting in on one of these cards and making something happen. It’s unfortunate. Right now it’s just one of these situations where, because of how things are set up, the person you want to fight may not be comfortable or confident in taking a fight because their training situation is not ideal.
“I can completely understand where we are right now in the world with this whole COVID situation and why some people might be cautious about jumping into a training camp when there’s so much uncertainty moving forward.”
Neil Magny keen to 'get back in there,' eyes future fights with Michael Chiesa, Geoff Neal
