Stephen Thompson believes Jorge Masvidal will become the new welterweight champion at UFC 261.

In the main event of the card, Masvidal is getting his rematch against Kamaru Usman, not even a year after losing to him at UFC 251. However, Jorge took the previous fight on just days’ notice and had to fly to Abu Dhabi and cut a bunch of weight. For Thompson, he believes a full camp will allow Masvidal to put up a better fight.

“I think it’s just because I really want to see him win the fight. I’m kind of biased a little bit, obviously. I kind of gave you my thoughts on that,” Thompson said to Submission Radio. “But, I do believe that it can go either way. Like, before, I had Usman winning, like, he was definitely gonna win. What was it, a two-week training camp, or short notice for Jorge Masvidal. So, I just knew Usman got it, because that guy is always in shape, man.

“But now that he’s (Jorge Masvidal) got a training camp, and on top of that, he’s faced him before, so he knows what he’s gonna bring to the table,” Thompson continued. “I don’t know, man, it’s hard to kind of put him out. Like, (Jorge Masvidal) does some crazy stuff. Like, everybody knew that Ben Askren was gonna beat him, right? And you saw what he did in the first round. I mean, he pulls stuff out like that out of his hat on the reg, and you don’t know what’s gonna happen, and it’s scary facing a guy like that.”

Stephen Thompson also brings up the fact that Jorge Masvidal was having success and doing well against Kamaru Usman until the championship rounds. He believes that is due to the lack of training, so on a full camp, Thompson believes Masvidal gets the job done.

“I’m leaning a little towards Jorge Masvidal for this one,” Thompson said.

Who do you think wins, Kamaru Usman or Jorge Masvidal?