Brown Calls Out Chiesa — ‘Defend Your Ranking’

Randy Brown called out Michael Chiesa … yet again.

The welterweight “Rude Boy” first went after “Maverick” in the wake of his Warlley Alves win at UFC Sao Paulo back in late 2019. Chiesa appeared to show little interest in the 170-pound matchup, leading to a second request after Brown was bounced from UFC 296.

“I just always thought we would be a good matchup for years,” Brown told reporters at the UFC Vegas 85 post-fight press conference (transcribed by MMA Junkie). “These are the guys that I’ve been watching. These are guys that when I grew up watching MMA as an amateur, that I’ve seen in ‘The Ultimate Fighter,’ and I’ve got a ton of respect for them. I just think you have to defend your ranking. As someone established in the rankings — or, as you say, ‘a contender’ — you can’t just rest on your laurels. This isn’t a shot to him or anything, but I just feel like he doesn’t fight as consistent as he should.”

Chiesa, 36, dropped to 16-7 after losing three straight fights but has managed to retain the No. 14 spot in the official welterweight rankings (see them here). Brown, 33, improved to 18-5 with his knockout win over Muslim Salikhov at UFC Vegas 85 and has now won six of his last seven.

Brown remains unranked at 170 pounds.

“If I’m a contender coming up and I’m looking at these guys and I’m like, ‘Who can I realistically get a matchup with?’ and the guys that aren’t fighting — you’ve got to do something to prove you belong in that spot,” Brown continued. “I feel like he’s one of the guys that don’t fight enough, so I just locked in on him. We’re trying to get it done. He said maybe UFC 300 is a little too soon for him, but he wants to do it. If he’s a man of his word, which I think he is, hopefully the UFC can come to something or we can go to UFC and work it out. We’ll see.”

Chiesa has not competed since losing to Kevin Holland in July 2023.