Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) welterweight titleholder Johny Hendricks recently took the opportunity to put his boss, Dana White, on the spot, asking for a potential "super fight" against middleweight champion Chris Weidman at some point in the future.
The UFC president, however, was having none of it, saying that "Bigg Rigg" still had a long road ahead of him in a stacked 170-pound weight class before he can start targeting other division champions.
Can't blame him for trying.
Weidman himself was recently asked about Johny's suggestion, and he too shot down the possibility, saying that he won't entertain the fight, seeing as how Hendricks is a much smaller man and wouldn't want to abuse the size advantage.
But if the day comes when "All American" eventually cleans out the 185-pound weight class and sets himself apart from the rest of the field, he wouldn't mind doing a "super fight" against a bigger champion in the form of light heavyweight kingpin Jon Jones.
His words on The MMA Hour:
"If I was at the top and he's (Jones) at the top, then that's the guy I'd want to fight, but who knows where we will be at that point. I think he'll be at the top for a while and I think I will too, so, you know. But if I had to say right now, then yeah that's the fight I want. I want to fight the best guys in the world. It's not like I'm calling out Jon Jones, but I want the toughest competition and I'd want to fight the people that other people think I can't beat. So he'd definitely be an awesome test for me, so who knows. I don't even think that I'd entertain that (Johny Hendricks fight). Not that he's not good or anything like that, but it just doesn't make any sense to talk about it now. Hendricks hasn't defended his belt yet, and I have more people to fight in my weight class. Nothing to talk about right now. On top of that, I would never call out a guy who's smaller than me. I'm a lot bigger than him, I think. I know he walks around heavy, but I'd feel like I'd have a huge advantage in that fight, so I'm not calling him out. Jon Jones is different. He's taller than me, he's bigger than me, so that's a different story. That would be more of a test for me than Johny Hendricks."
While Jones may be closer than Weidman in his efforts to clean out his division, a fight between the two talented combatants actually going down is still a long ways away.
Too many things would have to go right, and chief among them is that neither one of them can lose their titles. But even when things do go perfect, staging a "super fight" between division champions isn't always a sure deal.
Nevertheless, on the heels of his second straight title defense against Lyoto Machida at UFC 175 (video), Weidman will continue his quest to dominate the entire 185-pound weight class as he eyes Vitor Belfort next.
If he can manage to topple "The Phenom," Weidman will be well on his way to a "Bones" - like path, as his first three title defenses will have come against the cream of the crop.