Stephen Thompson stands firm on refusing to fight contenders who miss weight, urges other fighters to follow suit

Stephen Thompson weighed in on his stance to refuse fighting contenders who miss weight and is encouraging others to follow suit.

During his appearance on The MMA Hour, 'Wonderboy' opened up about his decision to refuse to fight Michel Pereira after missing weight at UFC 292. He mentioned that other fighters should do the same, as he believes it will provide more pressure on contenders to stay disciplined and make weight:

"I hope that people will take my lead and say, 'Look, if you're not gonna make the weight, then I'm not gonna fight. I'm not gonna do it.' And I feel like hopefully that will change or there needs to be more of a consequence for the people that don't make weight cause then the fight doesn't happen."

Stephen Thomspon also brought up that he hopes that if more fighters follow suit, the promotion will be much more strict with how they penalize fighters that miss weight. He mentioned that despite both fighters weighing in within a few pounds, if one misses weight, it is still an uneven playing field in terms of going through a full weight cut, saying:

"Everybody wants to see the fight, UFC wants the fight to happen. But you know, the fans got to understand as well that its not a same playing field whenever they don't suffer with you."

It remains to be seen whether the UFC change its stance and adopt stricter consequences as a result of what happened between Stephen Thompson and Michel Pereira.

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Stephen Thompson reveals pay increase for bout with Shavkat Rahkmonov

Stephen Thompson recently revealed that he will be receiving an increase in pay for his upcoming fight with Shavkat Rakhmonov at UFC 296.

While speaking to former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman on his Sirius XM show Won't Back Down, 'Wonderboy' brought up that the promotion will be compensating him after Michel Pereira missed weight for their scheduled bout at UFC 292, which resulted in it being canceled, saying:

"I think the deal is when I fight Shavkat, they're [UFC] going to add what they owed me for that last fight." [h/t MMA Mania]

UFC 296 bout announcement