Stephen Thompson doesn’t have any interest in fighting Khamzat Chimaev right now.
The rising welterweight has made waves in the MMA world thanks to his impressive wins over John Phillips, Rhys McKee, and Gerald Meerschaert. Still, the UFC newcomer remains unranked in the stacked division and while Chimaev is a forced to be reckoned with, top names such as Stephen Thompson or Leon Edwards feel that the 26-year-old needs to prove himself against a ranked fighter.
Several weeks ago, “Wonderboy” respectfully called out Leon Edwards, but Chimaev threw his name out there to fight Thompson instead. The No. 5 ranked welterweight finally responded by stating that the match-up just doesn’t make sense to him:
“No, I’m not fighting him, man. I mean, it just doesn’t make sense for me at this point,” Thompson said on his Youtube channel. “I’m ranked No. 5 to fight a guy who is unranked? You know what I mean. I fought a lot of guys to get to where I’m at. And a lot of other fighters fought a lot of guys to get where they’re at so I don’t see why it’s okay for him to jump past everybody.”
Chimaev tried to call out No. 3 seed Leon Edwards as well, but like Thompson, the fight just didn’t make sense to the top-ranking welterweight. Dana White confirmed that the newcomer will headline an upcoming Vegas event against a ranked opponent, though it hasn’t been confirmed who will step up and take on the undefeated fighter.