UFC lightweight Michael Chiesa hasn’t been seen in a UFC Octagon since April 2016, but having now made a full recovery from injury, he’s fighting fit and ready to return. 

Chiesa ruptured an L3 vertebrate in his back last June and has sat on the sidelines ever since making sure he’s fully recovered before signaling he’s ready to make a comeback. Speaking yesterday at the UFC Halifax fan Q&A, Chiesa outlined his desired timeline for a return.

“From what I’ve been told, in three weeks I should be able to come back,” Chiesa said. “There was no structural damage done, it was all just kinda flared up so, I’m looking to get back in the Octagon in April.”

For the past few weeks, Chiesa has been calling for a fight with former UFC lightweight champion, Eddie Alvarez. As you can imagine, it didn’t take him long to bring up Alvarez’s name and he took every opportunity to float the fight out there.

“Eddie lost the title to Conor, but I think it’s a fight that makes sense,” Chiesa said. “Eddie’s a tough guy [and a] former champion in other promotions, but he’s had his time and now I think it’s mine.

“He said he wants to wait around and see to see what happens on March 4, but why don’t you fight somebody? Don’t just sit around and wait for it, you got to go get it. You know, if he’s man enough to step up to the challenge there’s a big bearded guy in the Pacific north-west waiting to get in a fifteen-minute fist fight with him so let’s see if he takes the bait.”

Chiesa’s call out was met by a raucous response from the fans in attendance who were seemingly in full approval of the fight. 

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The former TUF 15 winner was later asked about how well he think he matches up with interim UFC lightweight challenger Tony Ferguson. The two were set to meet at UFC Fight Night 91 in July 2016, but Chiesa pulled from the bout with the back injury that has kept him sidelined.

“I’ll tell you exactly how he would’ve went,” Chiesa said. “Both me and Tony probably would’ve landed some punches, we would’ve hit each other a lot, kicked each other a lot, there’d be some takedowns, some scrambles, but when he goes for those funky rolls—that’d be a big mistake against me. You can’t expose your back to me—I’ll ride you like a Jansport backpack and get your neck.

“He’s a tough dude man, he deserves to be where he’s at. I just think for how many risks he takes, I’m not the guy to do that against—you’re just destined to lose. I think the fight would’ve probably have gone a couple of rounds and we would’ve lumped each other up, but I’d have grabbed his neck.”