Following Jorge Masvidal’s impressive ‘UFC Fight Night: Denver’ win over Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone this past weekend, the streaking welterweight contender found himself being offered a fight against Demian Maia. Masvidal accepted the bout, and Maia was sent the potential bout. Maia turned the fight down, and fellow top ranked welterweight Neil Magny offered to step up and fight Masvidal.

While many expected Masvidal to be on-board with the fight after Maia turned the fight down, Masvidal was quick to shut down Magny, recalling a time when he offered to fight Neil Magny on short notice, and Magny turned the fight down.

In an interview with MMAJunkie, Magny fired back, saying:

“When my opponent fell out, he was one of the guys that jumped on Twitter right away and was trying to beg for the fight, but I turned it down. I’m not interested in fighting guys who, in my mind, are bums or don’t have a streak behind them. He’s a guy who’s been in the sport for a while. But at the time at welterweight, he didn’t have any accomplishments. The only win he had at welterweight was a guy who fights at 145, (Ross Pearson).

“So it’s not a guy I want to fight. I’m coming off a huge win beating Hector Lombard, and I want to turn around and fight a guy that fights at featherweight? No. For lack of a better word, I thought he was a kind of a b—h. He was finding any way to make a fight, but I was focused on fighting tough opponents.”

Now, things are different. With Masvidal coming off a big win over Donald Cerrone, Magny believes the time for a fight is now:

“He’s definitely piqued my interest now,” Magny said. “He’s beaten two guys in the top 15 and one guy in the top five. He has some skills, and I think it would be a good matchup for me at this point.”

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 2/2/2017.