Stephen Thompson: I deserve UFC welterweight title shot more than Leon Edwards at this point

Stephen Thompson thinks he should be above Leon Edwards in the UFC welterweight championship pecking order.

Edwards returned after an almost two-year layoff against Belal Muhammad in the UFC Fight Night 187 headliner this past weekend, but the fight was ruled a no contest after Edwards inadvertently poked Muhammad in the eye, rendering him unable to continue.

After the fight, Edwards expressed his desire to move on, calling for a title shot. But “Wonderboy,” who recently put a halt to the winning streaks of surging contenders Vicente Luque and Geoff Neal, thinks it’s absurd for Edwards to be asking for a title shot after a return that provided no clarity.

Thompson (16-4-1 MMA, 11-4-1 UFC) thinks Edwards (18-3 MMA, 10-2 UFC) should run things back with Muhammad and even sees himself in a better position to contend for the title.

“With the eye poke, there’s only one thing to do and that’s to run it back,” Thompson said on his “What’s Up Everybody?!” podcast. “I know Edwards is saying he deserves the title next, but you can’t get the title after being gone for two years and then having a no contest with a poke to the eye. Come on.”

He continued, “I know Edwards is like, ‘No, man, I want to fight for the title,’ but come on, dude, you haven’t fought. I deserve the title more than you deserve it at this point. I’m just saying, you know what I mean? Come on, guys. I’m the only guy that Usman hasn’t fought.”

With welterweight champion Kamaru Usman’s next fight booked against Jorge Masvidal in the main event of UFC 261 on April 24, neither Thompson nor Edwards will get their wish. Both men have been on a collision course, with Thompson calling Edwards out in the past, and that just might be Edwards’ best shot at getting a crack at Usman, with Colby Covington continuously dismissing him.

Despite thinking Edwards should have been disqualified for poking Muhammad in the eye, Thompson was rather complimentary of his performance up to the point of the unfortunate fight-ending sequence.

“He looked really crisp, he looked really sharp, he looked fast,” Thompson said. “That’s the best shape I’ve seen Edwards in. … He was looking shredded. His fighting skills, he had great timing, he looked very calm. He had Belal backing up, so I had him winning the fight up until the point where he poked him in the eye and he couldn’t continue. But anything can happen. Belal was saying he was just getting warmed up.”