Stephen Thompson (17-6-1) discusses his welterweight fight against Shavkat Rakhmonov (17-0) at UFC 296 on Dec. 16. Timestamps below. 0:00 - Intro 0:21 - When did this fight become official? 1:06 - Were you forced to take this fight? 2:24 - Backlash from Michel Pereira 5:23 - Any other oppoennts in the mix? 6:53 - Was Ian Garry in the mix? 7:40 - Matchup against Shavkat 8:44 - Training camp 9:45 - Weight cut 10:58 - Ever see yourself moving up to 185lbs? 11:52 - Prediction 13:05 - His durability playing into the matchup 14:25 - Khamzat Chimaev vs. Paulo Costa 15:03 - Islam Makhachev vs. Charles Oliveira 15:32 - Current contract status 16:32 - How do you fix pay issues in UFC? 18:05 - Colby Covington vs. Leon Edwards 19:06 - Sean Strickland defeating Isarel Adesanya 20:13 - Opinion of Sean Strickland 21:01 - Toughest fight in his career 22:23 - How much longer do you want to fight? 23:10 - What are you going as for Halloween? 24:11 - Sponsors & Social Media #stephenthompson #shavka