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Chas Skelly Hopes For a Complete Fight at UFC 211

April 24, 2017 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas
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Chas Skelly spoke with MMAjunkie ahead of his fight with Jason Knight at UFC 211. The highlights are below:

On the importance of the fight to him: “For me, with this fight, more than gaining buzz around my name, or getting more followers or people to watch me. I wanted to fight at my home town so people from Azle could come out and watch, the people I grew up with. It’s impossible for them to get out and go watch me anywhere else. Dallas is really the only place they could come, unless there’s a card in Forth Worth or something like that. Tickets are expensive, hotel rooms are expensive, and people can’t afford to travel and take a whole weekend and take their family and come watch me fight. So what I wanted was to fight in front of my fans and the people who’ve been following me basically my whole life, watching me wrestle since I was a kid, coming up through high school and college.”

On Knight: “The only thing I say is, there’s only room for one redneck in this 145-pound UFC trailer park. And that’s me. I think we’re both pretty country.”

On his two UFC losses: “I think those losses taught me, more than anything, that you have to be smart. One of the losses taught me I have to be smart and make better decisions with when to take fights and not to take fights. The Elkins fight, I wasn’t prepared for it. My camp was just awful – no preparation. I couldn’t stay in the gym. I think it just taught me to be smarter with my career and be persistent. Keep training even outside of camps – stay in shape. Eat right, make the weight cuts easier on myself. That’s something that I’ve really really stressed in my last couple of camps.”

On his hopes for the bout: “I think I would like to make this a complete fight. To stay tactical, and look to beat him striking, and when the opportunity presents itself, take him down and beat him on the ground. That’s always the game plan. Make it a complete fight and make him fight everywhere. I would imagine, if I had to pick a way for me to win, I would say by submission. I think once it gets to the ground, I’m going to be a little more polished. But you never know. I actually imagine this being a three-round barnburner. That’s what I’m hoping for.”

article topics :

Chas Skelly, UFC 211, Jeremy Thomas