‘I deserve this fight’ - Pereira happy with recent Thompson callout

The Brazilian heard Thompson was interested in fighting him, and he is happy to oblige. The only question now is, why isn’t the fight getting booked?

Stephen Thompson wants an exciting fight in his return to the Octagon, and he knows who would give him one.

Thompson spoke to Cole Shelton of BJPenn.com about getting a striker for his next appearance, with Li Jingliang and Kevin Holland on his short list of options. However, with Jingliang and Holland getting booked against Tony Ferguson and Daniel Rodriguez at UFC 279, ‘Wonderboy’ has set his sights on Michel Pereira, the Brazilian known for his flashy striking.

“I’m looking at Michel Pereira,” said Thompson. “I think that would be an awesome fight. He’s up-and-coming [guy], definitely down to bang it out and strike. I think he called me out, too, on social media, so that would be a good fight for sure.”

Pereira responded to Thompson and wondered why the UFC has yet to schedule the fight considering both men have expressed interest in it.

“I want to fight him, and he wants to fight me,” wrote Pereira on Twitter. “I don’t understand why this fight is not happening.”

“I found out today that he wants to fight me and I want to fight him, but for some reason, the UFC doesn’t want to close this fight and I don’t know why this is already. I’m winning 5 consecutive wins, all my fights I always have a great performance, I deserve this fight!”

Pereira was last in action at UFC Vegas 55, where he earned a split decision over Santiago Ponzinibbio in a fight that was given ‘Fight of the Night’ honors. That was his fifth consecutive win, having also defeated the likes of Khaos Williams, Niko Price and André Fialho in previous outings.

Thompson had a two-fight win streak snapped with back-to-back losses to Gilbert Burns and Belal Muhammad at UFC 264 and UFC Vegas 45, respectively.