Stephen Thompson was one of the many to turn down a match-up with newly ranked welterweight contender Khamzat Chiamev
Chimaev burst onto the scene this summer and quickly established himself as an exciting prospect in both the middleweight and welterweight division. The 26-year-old picked up an emphatic 185lb win in his UFC debut against John Phillips. Ten days later he was back in action at 170lbs taking on UFC newcomer Rhys McKee, who he dispatched inside one round. A few months later he stepped back up to middleweight and needed just 17 seconds and one punch to take out Gerald Meerschaert.
Despite being just three fights into his UFC career Chimaev received a main event date and the company quickly set about trying to land him a big-name opponent. ‘Wonderboy’ who is now set to face Geoff Neal passed up the chance to face Chimaev and admits he felt somewhat disrespected at being linked to a fight against someone he’d never even heard of.
“At the time I was kind of like, I felt disrespected when he kind of mentioned my name,” Thompson told Submission Radio. “There was like a lot of fake news about me fighting him. I was like, no, I’m not, I don’t even know who this guy is. At the time I didn’t, I really wasn’t watching a whole lot of the UFC stuff.”
Chimaev has now landed a fight with #3 ranked welterweight Leon Edwards. Thompson believes the young fighter of Russian descent is receiving a considerable push from the UFC who are keen to fill the gap left by the now-retired Khabib Nurmagomedov, he said.
“I was like, man, why are they pushing this Khamzat guy so hard. And then I was like, watch Khabib retire. And they kind of did the same thing with Till. When Bisping retired, they needed somebody from that market to keep those fans involved, and Till was it. And I guess the same thing with Khamzat. They knew that Khabib was gonna retire and they needed somebody from that market, and there you go. You’ve got this Khamzat guy who’s been doing work.”
Do you agree with Stephen Thompson? Is the UFC pushing Khamzat Chimaev to fill the gap left by Khabib Nurmagomedov?