ABU DHABI —Daniel Rubenstein isn’t like some of his peers in the MMA management game.
At times, a few of his contemporaries mistake themselves for being the stars of the show instead of their clients, and you see more of them in the media than you do the fighters themselves.
Rubenstein, however, has built a successful and enduring agency by spotlighting his fighters first and foremost and staying out of the limelight. So when he makes a rare media appearance, his words carry more weight than those you hear from nonstop.
An occasion such as Michael Chiesa’s first UFC main event since moving up to welterweight would be one example. Rubenstein is out on “Fight Island,” for the UFC’s run of three events in eight days to kick off the year, and as Chiesa gets set to take Neil Magny in the main event of Wednesday’s UFC on ESPN 20, it was a chance to explain what he’s been up to since we last saw him in January 2020, when he defeated former lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos.
“I think the last year has been good for Mike,” Rubenstein told MMA Junkie. “The pandemic allowed him to take some time off, and not really try to force him into a fight that didn’t really make sense. He had some injuries that he had to recover and he had surgery that he was able to take the appropriate time to heal from. He did a little bit of snowboarding, did a lot of the ESPN desk work, which I think is good for him, it allows him to keep his mind in fighting while not being in fight camp and then obviously when the Magny fight came up, he loved it.
“I think we tried to get him in there in December and Sean (Shelby) kind of said January made more sense. We didn’t know it was going to be ‘Fight Island’ at that point. It worked out well for Mike, he was able to recover and be ready to fight.”
Rubenstein believes that Chiesa has thrived at welterweight in large part because he no longer has to contend with large weight cuts.
“I think him moving up to 170 allows him to spend the eight weeks of fight camp not just getting down to 155,” he said. “He can actually go in there and train for this specific opponent try to learn things throughout the whole camp instead of, you know, I wrestled my whole life, he’s competed his whole life. If you’ve ever been in a sport where you cut weight and you’re not at the right weight class, you’re basically spending your entire career just trying to diet down. I think we’ve seen a lot of fighters not just go up in weight class that make a little more sense, but make it have a little more sense.
“Jorge Masvidal, he had amazing welterweight career since he moved up. I think it helps these guys. … I think Mike being 6-3, cutting to 155 probably wasn’t the smartest idea, he was ranked at 155 it’s hard to step away from that.”
If Chiesa can pass his next test, which is a considerable one in the highly skilled Magny, then Rubenstein believes there are several potential interesting options as Chiesa works toward the top of the welterweight division.
“I think it’s good that division people has a lot of names in it that people do want to fight, there are superstars in that division,” he said. “I think for Mike it’s the next fight for him, he gets past Magny, he’s called out Colby (Covington) before, I could see him calling out Colby again I don’t know if that fight with Masvidal is done, that’s probably what they want, but its a fight that makes sense for us. I think the Wonderboy fight makes sense for us I think Leon Edwards makes sense. Someone who is ranked above us. Someone ranked above us is who we’re going to want.”
Manager explains how UFC on ESPN 20’s Michael Chiesa found success at welterweight
