Stephen Thompson explains why he wasn't able to fight Leon Edwards at UFC Fight Night 187
Stephen Thompson recently had an interview with MMAFightingSBN. In the interview, Wonderboy discussed his current hand injury. He went on to say that he had an MRI done recently and the hand injury is the only thing keeping him from competing. He just celebrated his 38th birthday and has said that he feels like a 25 years old.
Thompson said that the UFC was aware of his injury and hence did not reach out to him for the Edwards fight. He went on to say:
"I think they (UFC) were aware of what was going on with me, I think they needed somebody for that March 13th card. They were looking for somebody who could make that and I couldn't do it at the moment. I was hoping that they would take him (Edwards) off the card and he will be ready by April or May cause that's when I will be back and we can make that fight happen."
Thomspon went on to share his thoughts about the recent welterweight title fight, Kamaru Usman vs Gilbert Burns. He had a few good words to say about Usman's successful title defense. Thompson said:
"Usman is the champ and he is a champ for a reason. He kept super calm and took the punishment. I don't think he took a lot of punishment because he blocked a lot of it and came back in the second and third round and finished him with a jab. I mean, he's known for his wrestling and he's taking out people with a jab."
Watch the full interview here:
This came after Khazmat Chimaev pulled out of his scheduled bout due to complications regarding suffering from the Coronavirus. Leon Edwards is now set to face Belal Muhammad at UFC Fight Night. Muhammad and Edwards share the same MMA record of 18-3.
Belal is currently ranked No.13 in the UFC welterweight division while Edwards sits comfortably at No.3 in the same division. Edwards is currently on an eight-fight win streak.
Stephen 'Wonderboy' Thompson calls out Leon Edwards
Stephen Thompson took to social media to show his eagerness to fight Leon Edwards. At the time, Edwards was trying to draw Jorge Masvidal's attention in order to have Masvidal as his next opponent. Instead, Edwards received a Twitter call out from Thompson. This was his first ever Twitter call out and it happened to be quite a respectful one!