It is what it is and all I keep saying is that I'll fight whoever you want and I'll fight him again as soon as you give me that chance.

Well I'll give you that chance now in a way. Without looking past Thomas next Saturday, if you could book your next fight yourself, who is someone you'd like to get into the cage with?

If I could have any fight, I wanna fight for the title. My next fight, I either wanna fight for that #1 contender or the title and I don't care who it is.

I literally don't. A lot of people say that, but I literally don't. When the WEC calls and says, "We've got so-and-so," I don't ask to find someone else, I say, "Okay."

When they called and told us my opponent had been changed and they had to find me one, I didn't say who or what or where, I just said, "Okay." Then they called and told my manager that it was Noah Thomas and that was the end of it.

I'll fight whoever, man. I just wanna get to the top and I don't care who I have to go through to get there. Hopefully it doesn't have to be a friend.

Funny you mention that because that's a topic that comes up a lot. What are your thoughts on that?

I don't want to fight my friends unless it means something. If I'm going to fight a friend, I want it to be for big money and for it to mean something. I don't want it to be an undercard fight.

I want it to be main card, title, #1 contender, let's do this type fight. I don't want to fight a friend for an undercard fight. They can find someone else for me to fight on the undercard.

There has been a lot of talk around the online MMA community about a potential merger between the WEC and the UFC, as both are owned by Zuffa LLC.

What do you think about such a move? Would it be beneficial for the WEC and their roster or do you risk getting lost in the shuffle by joining forces with a larger organization?

That's my big concern, losing the number of fights I can get in a year, but at the same time, if I'm winning and I'm exciting, they're going to put me on no matter what as much as they can and I have a tendency to put on very exciting fights.

I think it's a good thing. For smaller guys like myself and lighter weights, my paycheck's not shabby looking at the other guys in my weight class and guys in the WEC's contracts, I don't have too bad a contract.

It's middle of the road; it's not a headliner contract and that UFC tag brings a lot more. It brings a lot more sponsorship and a lot more opportunities and what not.

I think it would be a great thing and I trust in Zuffa and myself that as long as I'm putting on great fights, the number of cards they'd have to put on and they keep hinting at network deals, that opens the opportunity for more shows. And if they add more shows, they gotta fill...