Chepe Mariscal says he's ready for UFC champ Ilia Topuria right now – this week

If Damon Jackson falls out of his fight against Chepe Mariscal on Saturday, Mariscal wants to shoot his long, long, long shot.

If Jackson can’t go, and featherweight champion Ilia Topuria is in the mood to travel to Vegas to save Mariscal’s spot on UFC on ESPN 61 with a shotgun title fight, well, Mariscal would just be obliged to say yes.

That’s a rather absurd way of saying Mariscal, like most fighters, is confident in what he brings to the table – to the point he thinks he’s ready for a shot at the champ right away.

“I’d challenge him now if I could,” Mariscal told MMA Junkie Radio. “If Damon Jackson falls out and Ilia Topuria jumps in, f*ck it – I’m down. Those are guys that I look at all the time. It was (Alexander) Volkanovski at the time, and I was watching film, how to beat him. Even at lightweight, I was like, ‘Man, what if I win the belt at featherweight and I fight (for a title) at lightweight?’ I like playing those kind of things (in my mind). I just love the fight game.”

Mariscal (16-6 MMA, 3-0 UFC) might not be in true sniffing distance yet of a shot at Topuria’s belt. But he’s off to a pretty good start on the way to that goal, and a win over a longtime UFC fighter like Damon Jackson (23-6-1 MMA, 6-4-1 UFC) on the main card would buoy his resume.

The Colorado-based 31-year-old is coming off his third UFC win – a Fight of the Night bonus-snagging split decision over Morgan Charriere in early April. He was supposed to fight Dan Ige in July, but Ige took that instantly famous UFC 303 same-day fight against Diego Lopes and left Mariscal at the proverbial altar.

But in stepped Jackson, and Mariscal likes the challenge because it keeps him from having a delay in those title aspirations.

“If you’re not in it to be a champion, then I don’t know why you’re in this business. I’m in it to become a UFC champion,” he said. “I’ve said yes to everybody, even Dan Ige. I said yes to anybody (who needed a fight), but I got a lot of no (responses). It’s hard to really push it and try to get to that belt when guys are saying no.

“I was glad that Damon Jackson said yes because he’s a guy on that path. That guy’s obviously won some big fights. He’s put on some great performances. He has a nice record. He’s a vet. He’s a guy who kind of went through this system of ‘He has to be LFA champ,’ ‘He has to be this,’ ‘He has to be that,’ and then go to the UFC. I fought all the gladiators outside of the UFC before they went in the UFC. We had different routes, but now we’re here.”

Aside from having the confidence to say he’d take on the champion now if he could, Mariscal said he tries to stay somewhat grounded in reality about title talk.

After all, he’s got Jackson looming at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on Saturday (ESPN/ESPN+), and taking his eyes off the next step in the process could cause a speed bump that would be hard to recover from.

“I could say, ‘Yeah, in five years, I’ll be UFC champ,’ but I’ve got to worry about the next day,” Mariscal said. “I look at it as just keep on staying on the grind until I obviously get to the top 10, and then make a little more noise and hopefully get a title fight.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ESPN 61.