Neil Magny calls for a fight with ‘Maverick’ following impressive win at UFC 248

At UFC 248, Neil Magny returned to the Octagon to face Chinese contender Li Jingliang. He out-struck Jingliang to win by unanimous decision. Post-fight, the 32-year old reflected on his successful performance and already has his sights set on his next opponent.

“We went back and looked at my last five fights, the wins and losses, and really looked at where I could improve,” Magny said (via MMA Junkie). “One of the biggest things we found was foot positioning. I feel like we addressed that well tonight. Another thing is pressure. I wanted to sit back and calculate a little bit more, so it’s been improvement all around.”

The welterweight fighter took some time out after suffering devastating KO loss to Santiago Ponzinibbio in 2018. He was expected to fight at UFC Rochester in 2019 but was forced to withdraw due to a USADA issue. Magny made the most of his time out of the cage, and returned on a high.

“It feels great to finally get back in there and win. Over the last year now, I’ve been finding myself in a real down place. I’ve put that all behind me now and came out on top tonight, so it feels great. In a weird way, this time off has been a blessing. It allowed me to spend a lot of time with family, even grow my family back at home. I also made some changes in my camp and made sure we were doing everything as well as possible.”

Now, Magny has his sights set on his next opponent, No. 7-ranked welterweight contender Michael Chiesa.

“I think this gets me right back in the mix. The division has been shaken up a bit since I’ve been gone, but I showed tonight that I can jump back in there with the best of them, so I’d love to jump back in there with (Michael) Chiesa.”

Would you like to see Neil Magny and Michael Chiesa fight next?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 3/9/2020.