Neil Magny on why he thinks Khamzat Chimaev chose to face Leon Edwards instead of him

Neil Magny isn't too happy that Khamzat Chimaev passed up on the opportunity to fight him. The 33-year-old has had a resurgence in 2020 after being away from the Octagon last year.

Neil Magny's most recent and perhaps significant win came against former Welterweight Champion Robbie Lawler. He dominated Lawler to a unanimous decision victory this past August and was looking to get right back in the Octagon around the end of the year to face Khamzat Chimaev.

It was over a week ago when Neil Magny started getting impatient. UFC's latest hot prospect, Khamzat Chimaev, has been calling out many different names from the Welterweight and Middleweight division. Given that Chimaev is still unranked, many felt that facing Neil Magny, the No.8 ranked Welterweight, would be a big step up in competition.

Instead, Leon Edwards' inactivity at No.3 saw UFC remove him from the rankings and it was only a matter of time before the promotion booked the fight between the British fighter and Chimaev for the December 17th main event.

Speaking on Ariel Helwani's MMA Show, Neil Magny admitted that he is frustrated over the situation. While Leon Edwards was ranked at No.3 compared to his position, he told Helwani that Khamzat Chimaev choosing to fight the British fighter instead of him was purely because he found that to be the easier match-up:

"I think it's pretty obvious at this point that his team and himself believe the easier matchup for him was Leon Edwards."@NeilMagny told @arielhelwani why he believes Khamzat Chimaev opted to fight Edwards and not Magny, who had been campaigning. pic.twitter.com/LsWgD6SX7i

— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) October 28, 2020

Does Neil Magny's claim have legitimacy to it?

There was one interesting thing about the short clip above. Neil Magny mentioned how Khamzat Chimaev has been calling out everyone and has been relatively silent about him.

It would be a bit odd for Khamzat Chimaev to call out many higher-ranked fighters from two divisions, but Neil Magny wasn't wrong to point out what he did. Perhaps Chimaev and his team consider Magny to be a worse fight stylistically.

With that said, had UFC not gone with Leon Edwards, then they likely would have pushed for the Chimaev-Magny fight.