Michael Chiesa, and why he's perfectly content with his 'TUF 15' legacy

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Nearly a year and a half after one of the most memorable and emotional runs on “The Ultimate Fighter,” Season 15 champion Michael Chiesa still gets approached by fans who, in one form or another, all tell him the same thing: Thanks.

In early 2012, Chiesa and 31 other lightweights ventured to Las Vegas for the first live season of the UFC’s long-running reality series. Producers hoped the new format, which saw pre-taped training and house footage, followed by a live fight, would revive ratings and freshen up a series that had become increasingly stale.

But all that tinkering couldn’t provide what Chiesa ultimately did: actual, and heart-wrenching, drama playing out in real time.

In just the second episode of the season, the little-known Washington fighter learned his father had passed away. The 25-year-old considered pulling out of the show before it even began. But wanting to make something positive out of the situation, Chiesa’s father, who had been battling illness, made his son promise him he’d go to Vegas and stay on the show no matter what happened.

It proved much more difficult than Chiesa could have imagined, but it also assured a unique bond with at-home viewers and fight fans.

“There have been countless fans even to this day who will come to me and say, ‘Man, I was going through this tough time with a family member who is sick, and I go back and watch what you went through, and it motivates me to persevere through it,’” Chiesa told MMAjunkie.com. “It’s extra motivation for me every time I hear something like that.”

Chiesa said he never gets tired of it. It’s the silver lining of the thing. Athletes rarely have any type of real and personal connection with fans, but with Chiesa’s nationally televised mourning, countless fight fans felt a bond. Seventeen months after surviving the “TUF” field and defeating Al Iaquinta in the tournament final, fans still want to talk to him about it.

But Chiesa (9-1 MMA, 1-1 UFC), who meets “TUF 16? champ Colton Smith (3-2 MMA, 1-1 UFC) on Wednesday in a FOX Sports 1-televised UFC Fight Night 31 bout, said he can think of worse legacies.

“I think it’s something I’ll probably get the rest of my career,” he said. “There have been what, like 20 or so winners of ‘The Ultimate Fighter?’ But there’s only one who went through what I had to go through. So I think it’ll stick with me.”

While most seasons of “TUF” wrap in six weeks, the live season ran 13. That was three months of being cut off from the rest of the world, often alone with his thoughts and away from his family. While fellow castmate Sam Sicilia was a longtime friend and a source of support, Chiesa said any of their conversations were met with seven or eight cameras. Want to have a heart to heart with a buddy? It’s tough with cameras and lights shoved in your face.

That’s where Gary Defranco, one of the show’s producers, stepped in. You won’t see Defranco in any clips from “TUF 15,” but his impact and contributions were substantial.

Those emotional, teary-eyed confessionals that made Chiesa such a sympathetic and relatable figure? The ones that saw Chiesa morph from grieving son to motivated namesake? Viewers only saw one side of them, but on the other was Defranco, who proved a sort of therapist for Chiesa.

“I could just tell that he cared,” Chiesa said. “There were times talking to Gary, he’d cry with me, so it wasn’t hard to vent to him at all. I’m thankful for him.

“I didn’t have to bottle it all up.”

Chiesa said he never felt exploited, never felt his story was being used for good TV. Away from his fellow castmates, he could let out the emotions that otherwise would have eaten him up in the “TUF” house and gym.

“I could, I guess you would say, vent to him,” he said. “I didn’t pull any punches with him. I’d just say what it was, how I was feeling. Him and I still have a relationship to this day. He’s a great man. It was tough for me to even talk to Sam at times because if you say one thing, you have the cameras swarming you.

“It ended up that it wasn’t hard to get my story out there and to be honest because I had Gary there.”

So when fans find him and discuss his most tragic loss, it’s not a reason for despair. It’s not a matter of reliving tragedy. It’s simply a reminder that his story is one that nearly anyone with a TV and a heart could share.

“Everything happens for a reason,” he said. “I think I was meant to be on that live season, to have it play out in real time for people going through the same thing.”

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