Leon Edwards' flirtation with moving up to challenge for the middleweight title has been branded 'c**p' by Stephen 'Wonderboy' Thompson.

The British star defends his welterweight belt next weekend against Colby Covington at UFC 296 but is already eyeing up double champ status. 

'Wonderboy' is one of the chasing pack at 170-pounds so it is no surprise he wants Edwards to stay around and clean out his own division first. 

He told Submission Radio: 'I think that's c**p, because there is, man! There's a ton of people. I think it's smart for him. 

He's only been the champ for one fight, and after those two fights, I feel like if you're going to go up to 185, give the guys at 170 a chance to get up. 

'Have at least two or three, four fights before you go on. Clean the division out. He hasn't done that.'

'Wonderboy' fights rising star Shavkat Rakhmonov on the same night as Edwards' clash with Covington and wants to state his case for a title shot with an emphatic win. 

He added: 'The guy that I'm going to be calling out is whoever is champ. And I believe it's going to be Leon. It's not for the title. I'm not going out there and calling out, 'I want the next title shot.' 

'I want whoever's champ. And as of right now, before that fight, it's going to be Leon. I'm going to be calling out Leon. I'm going to let everybody know: UFC, I'm coming for Leon.

'That's a fight that I thought was going to happen before he even got the title shot. There's a few times where I called him out, and he wasn't obviously biting cause he was on a streak. 

'But that's something that I thought was going to happen before he was champ, and it never did. 

'And now that he's champ, I think that would be a banger. He's only been fighting grapplers here pretty much. He's been fighting grapplers.'

Edwards arrives at his clash with Covington having beaten Kamaru Usman twice in succession, once by a stunning head kick KO and then by decision in London. 

'Chaos' meanwhile, will come into the bout feeling relatively lucky to have gained the opportunity with just one win under his belt, in March 2022 against Jorge Masvidal having been beaten twice by 'The Nigerian Nightmare'. 

That said, Edwards is only a marginal favourite with the bookies to retain his belt and many expect it to be a gruelling, hard-fought battle in Las Vegas.