Stephen Thompson has made it clear he wants to fight Kamaru Usman for the welterweight title and will go through anyone, including Khamzat Chimaev to get that.
Thompson is coming off a disappointing loss to Gilbert Burns at UFC 264 which halted his title run. He will now return against Belal Muhammad in the co-main event of UFC Vegas 45 where “Wonderboy” believes a win over Muhammad puts him right back in line for a title shot.
“A good win over Belal Muhammad, I could be right there for another title shot,” Thompson said at media day. “You can’t keep feeding the same guys to Kamaru Usman. A good win over Belal, maybe another fight, we’ll be looking at another title shot. I’m not giving up on it.”
Although Kamaru Usman has nearly cleaned out the division, Leon Edwards and Vicente Luque are both deserving of a title shot. Meanwhile, Khamzat Chimaev is probably a big win away and if Stephen Thompson beats Belal Muhammad on Saturday he said he would be interested in facing Chimaev.
Stephen Thompson Willing To Go Through Khamzat Chimaev To Get Title Shot
“He’s definitely a tough guy,” Thompson said. “To see him against (Jack) Hermansson (in a wrestling match) was like, ‘What?’ That guy’s a welterweight. He looked bigger than Hermansson did. That’s a scary guy right there with that quality of wrestling. It’s ridiculous. At some point in time we’ll probably be facing each other for sure. Yeah. That’s along with a lot of these up-and-coming guys. You got Sean Brady right there with him. I could be facing anyone of them. I could see myself facing those guys for sure in the future.”
Thompson no doubt has his path lined out to get the title shot but in order to do that, he will need to beat Muhammad on Saturday night in a very intriguing welterweight matchup.
