JERSEY CITY, N.J. – Just a few months ago, Randy Brown was campaigning to fight Michael Chiesa, but today, that’s a much different story.
Brown (18-5 MMA, 12-5 UFC) has lost all interest in fighting Chiesa and is no longer in search of the matchup. Returning at Saturday’s UFC 302, Brown said his objective is to crack the top 15 of the UFC’s official rankings, and Chiesa won’t help his cause at this point in time.
“I don’t care about Chiesa, man,” Brown said at Wednesday’s UFC 302 media day. “That whole situation was just that I wanted to fight. I wanted to fight someone with a name, and he was in the rankings. I felt deserved to be fighting in the rankings.
“But I don’t give a f*ck about Chiesa to be honest. He’s out of the rankings now. He doesn’t have a number next to him. He’s fighting some old guy. Those two old guys can go fight somewhere. That’s it.”
Chiesa is booked to fight MMA veteran Tony Ferguson on the main card of UFC on ABC 7 on Aug. 3, while Brown takes on Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos (24-7-1 MMA, 10-3-1 UFC) this Saturday to open up the UFC 302 main card (ESPN+ pay-per-view).
Brown hopes a win over Zaleski dos Santos finally gets him into the UFC’s rankings.
“It’s very important because rankings mean a better legacy, I’m closer to the title,” Brown said. “It means more money. It means everything steps up once you get a number, and you get closer to the goals you set out to accomplish. I’ve always thought I deserve a number, bro. Like I’ve been fighting, I’ve been winning. I’m 6-1 in my last seven, and I’m unranked, which is crazy. The one guy that beat me got ranked from beating me, and I was unranked, so alright.
“I don’t know, man. I’ve stopped thinking about it. Hopefully, after this fight I get a ranked opponent. If not, keep paying me to beat up on dudes y’all consider not good enough.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 302.
