Chael Sonnen seemingly triggered the wrath of Islam Makhachev after claiming that he showed a “sign of cowardice” and avoided Ilia Topuria to fight Jack Della Maddalena. He wasn’t impressed with the fact that the lightweight champion and not facing ‘El Matador’, who’s a top contender. Makhachev didn’t seem too pleased to be labeled a coward, and he has finally broken his silence and sounded off on Sonnen and his MMA career.

“The bottom line is you entered a division openly that you said you wouldn’t face one of the top guys,” Chael Sonnen recently stated on the Good Guy/Bad Guy’ show. He claims to hate the idea that Islam Makhachev is making way for the welterweight belt before facing Ilia Topuria, which is a superfight in itself. But that’s apparently not what the Dagestani native is looking for.

The soon-to-be former lightweight champion claims that big-money fights aren’t as appealing to him as big-time legacy fights are. Given that his mentor, Khabib Nurmagomedov, never had the opportunity to go for a second belt after his father’s passing, he wants to go for it. As such, Islam Makhachev deemed Chael Sonnen’s criticism invalid and advised the legend to pipe down a bit.

“Chasing hype and money is not the same as chasing greatness in sport. But average athlete, who built his way to the top with cheap trash talk, won’t understand that. So please seat and watch how others doing it, uncle Chael,” Islam Makhachev tweeted on social media.

Well, Islam Makhachev already has support from a veteran, who also criticized Chael Sonnen’s statements. He backed the UFC star, and even sounded off on ‘The American Gangster’, calling him a “Russian/Dagestan wrestling hater.” Let’s take a look at that front.

Josh Thompson defends Islam Makhachev

Former UFC fighter Josh Thomson did not seem to agree with Chael Sonnen and his thoughts on Islam Makhachev’s decision to make the 170-pound jump. In fact, ‘The Punk’ claims that the Dagestan native has done enough as a 155er to make a case for his wish not to fight Ilia Topuria. Furthermore, Thomson also called out Sonnen for what seemed to him like a blatant disdain for wrestling-heavy fighters of Dagestan.

“If you guys don’t know anything about Chael…what I will tell you is he is a Russian/Dagestan wrestling hater,” Josh Thomson stated on the ‘Weighing In’ podcast. “I’ve done promos with him and we’ve talked about it. … He will tell you that there’s no such thing as sambo, it doesn’t exist, it’s a stolen judo art, and it’s a generic version of American wrestling. This is uncle Chael at his finest. He is American through and through.”

Well, Islam Makhachev is going to for Jack Della Maddalena, and Dana White has already announced that. Now, it remains to be seen how Chael Sonnen reacts to Makhachev’s heated response in the coming days. It’s not new for him to get into disagreements with UFC fighters, so we’ll see. In the meantime, let us know your thoughts in the comments below.