Written by Photo by Cooper Neill/Zuffa LLC
As a fighter who has competed for UFC welterweight gold on two occasions, Stephen Thompson would understand current top-ranked divisional fighters being upset that Islam Makhachev is moving up.
Thompson, who competes in the co-main event of UFC Nashville this Saturday against Gabriel Bonfim, was asked about Makhachev vacating the lightweight title to pursue an opportunity to face new welterweight champion Jack Della Maddalena for a second divisional title later this year.
“Well, number one, if I was in the top-five, I would be very upset that this guy who just got the title is already looking at somebody from a different division,” Thompson told MMA Fighting. “If it was me who, if I’m in the top-five, more deserving than this guy coming up, like I’ve been waiting here.
Where’s the Shavkat Rakhmonov’s, where’s the Ian [Machado] Garry’s, [Kamaru] Usman, who’s been in the mix, is back in the mix, if you will, after beating [Joaquin] Buckley. Like these guys, I think, are more deserving of it because they’ve been there. If it was me, I would want JDM to like fight at least one more time, or two more times before looking at somebody from a different weight class.”
Makhachev defended his title four times before making the decision to win a second title. In his most recent appearance, MMA Fighting’s No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter defeated Renato Moicano on a day’s notice at UFC 311 via first-round submission. Moicano stepped in for Arman Tsarukyan who suffered an injury on the day before the January pay-per-view event.
In Thompson’s eyes, Makhachev presents some problems to Della Maddalena, but the same can be said the other way around.
“Now, I think it’s a good fight,” Thompson explained. “I think it’s a very tough fight for Islam Makhachev coming up. [Della Maddalena’s] a bigger guy, a guy with great takedown defense, and a guy who just won the title from somebody very similar to himself in Belal Muhammad. Cardio for days, strong grappling background.
“I do believe that Islam has a better striking than than Belal does, so I think that would be interesting, but I think it’s a very tough fight for Islam, for sure.”