Top UFC welterweight contender Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson has called his shot requesting a fight with Jorge Masvidal after his shut out victory over Geoff Neal in the main event of UFC Vegas 17.
The former title challenger spoke in his post fight interview issuing the challenge before later expanding on why in a conversation with ESPN’s Laura Sanko.
“Well number one I know he was interested if he had won the fight against Usman the first time he said he’d want to defend the belt against me,” Thompson said. “I know he wants that win back and it’s crazy because he inspires me to keep moving forward to keep pushing because is wasn’t that long ago I beat him at UFC 217 and now he’s one of the most popular guys in the UFC ranked higher than me, I thought we put on a good show the first time and why not do it again?”
When the pair initially faced off at UFC 217 Thompson won the fight via unanimous decision retruning to the wining column after back to back losses to Tyron Woodley for the welterweight title.
As for Masvidal, following this initial meeting he took a long lay off, returning to the sport to put together two highlight reel finishes over Darren Till and Ben Askren in 2019. Since then he has gone one for one in his last two fights defeating Nate Diaz and then losing a decision to the champion Kamaru Usman.
Thompson’s latest victory over Neal puts him on a two fight win streak against two rising competitors and with that he is expecting a top ranked opponent next to move himself one step closer to another title fight.
Currently, rumor is that Masvidal will look to face former teammate Colby Covington sometime in 2021, however, nothing has currently been confirmed.