OTTAWA, Ontario – Macy Chiasson knows that performances like the one she put on at UFC on ESPN+ 9 will bring a lot of expectations going forward. However, she said she feels prepared to navigate those waters.
Chiasson (5-0 MMA, 3-0 UFC) kept her undefeated record intact Saturday, when she stopped Sarah Moras (5-5 MMA, 2-4 UFC) by second-round TKO in the women’s bantamweight fight at Canadian Tire Centre. Chiasson has finished her opponent inside the distance in all three of her UFC wins, which is helping build her status as a future contender at 135 pounds.
Chiasson said she knows she’s building a reputation and will have to work harder to continue winning in definitive fashion.
“With that comes a lot of pressure,” Chiasson told reporters, including MMA Junkie, post-fight at UFC on ESPN+ 9. “You get finishes in all your fights, and people start to expect you to do that, and when you don’t, it’s almost like an upset. But you train accordingly, you do the best you can when you get in there.”
Chiasson was somewhat caught off guard early in the fight when Moras charged her with a takedown, then spent most of the first round in top position. “The Ultimate Fighter 28” winner said patience and the advice of her corner helped her get through the difficult moment, but when the second round arrived, it was one-way traffic.
“We knew she was going to be tough and one of the harder fights for us,” Chiasson said. “She’s a UFC veteran. She’s got great jiu-jitsu, and we weren’t sleeping on her. We knew there was going to be a little bit of adversity, and it was all about how we were going to work through it.”
With a perfect career record, Chiasson said her goal moving forward is to stay active and move up the bantamweight rankings. She has “a few names in mind” of who to fight next but would not drop any hints, other than stating the opponent was “obviously going to be top 10.”
Chiasson took the fight at UFC on ESPN+ 9 on short notice and was the last person to step on the scale at Friday’s weigh-ins. She put the blame on a “water retention issue” but said it wasn’t overly stressful. She’d prefer to have a full eight-week camp going forward and believes after taking a short break to recover from two fights in two months, she will be ready to book another.
“We want to stay active, we want to keep fighting, and we want to fight as many fights as we can get,” Chiasson said. “It’s a little harder with short notice because I am a tall girl and have to do that much more work to make weight, so with the right notice we’re willing to fight as many times as we can.”
To hear more from Chiasson, check out the video above.
For complete coverage of UFC on ESPN+ 9, check out the UFC Events section of the site.
