Stephen Thompson News

Jason Kindschy - January 18, 2018

BJPENN Radio is back tonight at 9PM ET/6PM PT two great guests! 9:15PM ET- First up, former title challenger and No. 7 ranked lightweight in the UFC, “The Motown Phenom” Kevin Lee. Months removed from a losing effort against Tony Ferguson for the interim lightweight title, Kevin now looks to make the most out of 2018 and get back to shot at gold. We’ll recap the Ferguson bout, discuss potential match-ups moving forward, his reaction to the announcement of Ferguson vs Nurmagomedov for Brooklyn in April, and McGregor possibly being stripped of the title. Also, Kevin opens up about the loss of his longtime coach and friend, Robert Follis.

Tom Taylor - December 19, 2017

Last Saturday night, the UFC touched down in snowy Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada with UFC on Fox 26. In the card’s exciting main event, former lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos asserted himself as one of the welterweight division’s top contenders, defeating former titleholder Robbie Lawler with a dominant, unanimous decision win. Shortly after this breakthrough win, dos Anjos received a callout from fellow welterweight contender Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson, who called him out for a title eliminator bout to establish a true number-one-contender.

Chris Taylor - December 17, 2017

Stephen Thompson sends a message to Rafael dos Anjos following UFC on FOX 26. Former UFC lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos improved his welterweight record to a perfect 3-0 by earning a lopsided unanimous decision victory over Robbie Lawler in the main event of UFC on FOX 26 last night in Winnipeg.

Justin Golightly - November 9, 2017

In the midst of all the injuries and bad news yesterday, there was a silver lining in the dark clouds. Dana White revealed that Stephen Thompson was going to fight surging welterweight Darren Till. We all joined hands and rejoiced, until Thompson said it was the first time he even heard of the match-up. The former two-time title challenger opts instead to fight the winner or loser of Rafael dos Anjos and Robbie Lawler‘s upcoming top contender bout, provided his thumb injury is all healed up. Darren Till jumped on Twitter today to tell the world what he thought of the whole thing. pic.twitter.com/aIKwHWdMhK

Chris Taylor - November 7, 2017

The UFC has changed locations in order to have undefeated welterweight Darren Till fight a former title challenger in England. Lance Pugmire of The Los Angeles Times was first to break the news reporting that a scheduled February 24 UFC event in Orlando, Florida will be moved overseas in order to have surging contender Darren Till fight in his backyard of England against former two-time welterweight title challenger Stephen Thompson.

Chris Taylor - November 4, 2017

A key welterweight scrap between Stephen Thompson and Jorge Masvidal took place during tonight’s UFC 217 pay-per-view main card at Madison Square Garden. Round one begins and Jorge throws a front kick that misses. Stephen takes the center of the octagon. He lands a nice outside low kick. Thompson goes high but Jorge blocks it. Masvidal comes back with a low kick. Thompson hammers Jorge with a side kick. Masvidal backs up to the fence and then circles off. Thompson with a side kick to the face. Jorge smiles at him. Thompson leaps in with a beautiful combination. Jorge circles and then lands a nice low kick. Thompson leaps in with a left hand that lands. Masvidal misses with a low kick. He throws another that connects. Thompson goes to the body with a kick. Jorge is responding with kicks now. Thompson circles out and then leaps in with a big right hand. He follows that up with a side kick that sends Masvidal to the floor. Jorge gets back up and lands a pair of low kicks. Thompson retreats. Masvidal follows him and lands a low kick. Thompson lands a perfect straight left down the pipe. That was beautiful. Masvidal presses forward and lands a combination of his own. The horn sounds to end round one.

Justin Golightly - November 3, 2017

Promising not to be the rusty coin sitting in the embarrassment of riches that is UFC 217, a wild scrap between Jorge Masvidal and Stephen Thompson rests just below the three title fights. On any normal fight card, this is a main event. On any other big pay-per-view, it could be a co-main event. Despite a Robbie Lawler and Rafael dos Anjos bout set to crown the next challenger to Tyron Woodley’s welterweight strap, this fight between Masvidal and Wonderboy has huge title implications. This is something Masvidal is knows and has a plan already set in place if he gets his hand raised. “I see myself breaking his face. I’ll be number one. After this fight, I’ll fight for the belt, especially after the post-fight speech I’m going to give. I haven’t prepared anything yet, but I’ll […] do something really disgusting, something ugly, and scare people. It’ll go viral. I still don’t know what it’s going to be, though. Colby [Covington] gave people a demonstration of insanity. I’m going to do something different, the way I usually do.” 

Russell Ess - November 3, 2017

If you saw UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping and UFC welterweight Jorge Masvidal and their exchanges backstage leading up to UFC 217, you would think that the two were meeting in the Octagon on Saturday night. However, this isn’t the case as Bisping is set to take on former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre in the main event of the evening while Masvidal will look to establish himself as one of the next welterweight title contenders as he meets Stephen Thompson in the Octagon.

Justin Golightly - October 10, 2017

Stephen Thompson is returning in a dangerous scrap with welterweight contender Jorge Masvidal, but he has his eyes set on bigger things. He’s had two shots at Tyron Woodley’s title, but came up short each time. Before he knew he was going to get the fight, he talked about a match with Robbie Lawler. With Woodley gone for shoulder rehab, he’s said it gives the division a chance to shuffle, which is why Thompson wants Lawler to be his ace in the whole to close our he and Woodley’s trilogy. “We’ve been kind of going back and forth with me and Robbie Lawler, I was ranked number one, then he’s number one, then we’re both number one. So hopefully a good win over [Jorge Masvidal] – you know, I understand Tyron [Woodley] is out for a little while, so hopefully we’ll be able to fight against Robbie Lawler, maybe for an interim welterweight title against him for that belt. You’re gonna see more of Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson than you saw in my last two fights against Tyron. I love it when guys come forward, which is something you didn’t see during the Tyron Woodley fight. But that’s just the way Masvidal is, he comes walking forward, he’s not afraid to press the action, which enables me to use my arsenal a little bit better, to use my kicks, to use my angles. So yeah, man, you’re gonna see a more exciting fight from me November 4th.”

Justin Golightly - August 17, 2017

  It may not compare to last year’s UFC debut at Madison Square Garden, but UFC 217 is definitely stacked. According to Jorge Masvidal, after a little bit of social media trash talk, the huge event just got more violent. On his Twitter, Gamebred announced that he and “Wonderbread” Stephen Thompson will fight each other to see who can get back in the title contention. Holy crap, it’s going to be Miami backyard brawlin’ going toe-to-head with down South Karate.

Justin Golightly - August 11, 2017

Stephen Thompson is all healed up and ready to spin kick the top five in the UFC welterweight division, all on a journey to get back to a title shot. Tyron Woodley (18-3-1 MMA) successfully defended his welterweight title at last month’s UFC 214 event in Anaheim, defeating top division contender Demian Maia via unanimous decision. Woodley put on absolute defensive clinic to stuff all 21 of the Brazilian submission specialist’s takedown attempts, leaving Maia with a pair of badly swollen eyes to take home with him after five rounds. When you stuff 24 takedown attempts and make your third successful defense … @TWooodley pic.twitter.com/uC8iHizOGR

Justin Golightly - August 11, 2017

The UFC is about to get a lot more Karate Kid again. Former UFC welterweight title challenger Stephen Thompson is ready to make his octagon return. Thompson was put on the sidelines following his majority decision loss to Tyron Woodley at March’s UFC 209 due to a knee injury which required surgery. Despite Jorge Masvidal saying Thompson’s injury was fake, “Wonderboy” spoke to BJPENN.com’s Chris Taylor yesterday evening where he revealed that he has been cleared by doctors and is now eyeing a November return to action at super stacked UFC 217. “Yea, so I got cleared. You know the doctors said I was good on Wednesday. So now I am getting back into the swing of things. I am training again, so I think I should be ready to go in November. That is the plan. I know that me and (Jorge) Masvidal verbally said that we would fight. I haven’t heard nothing from the UFC yet. So hopefully they will jump on board and want to make that fight happen. You know I’ve been out for 5 or 6 months now. It seems like I’ve been out forever man. I am just itching to get back out there and do it again. So hopefully the UFC will jump on board and want to get us on the [UFC 217] card. That is the plan anyway.”

bjpenndotcom - June 9, 2017

Former UFC welterweight title challenger Stephen Thompson has remained adamant that he wouldn’t fight his friend and former teammate Georges St-Pierre. With that being said however, after dropping a decision to Tyron Woodley earlier this year in a highly anticipated rematch for the welterweight title, Thompson appears to be warming up to the idea.

bjpenndotcom - June 9, 2017

While Tyron Woodley and Demian Maia have no date finalized for their highly anticipated welterweight title fight, all signs point towards Maia getting the next welterweight title fight against the champ. That fight has the MMA community torn on their predictions for the scrap, with many wondering stylistically how the pair will matchup given that Maia’s strength is his Jiu-Jitsu, and Woodley’s strength is his impressive wrestling background.

bjpenndotcom - June 8, 2017

Former UFC welterweight title challenger Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson has been absent from the Octagon since his UFC 209 showdown with Tyron Woodley for the welterweight championship, a highly anticipated rematch from their UFC 205 co-main event showdown that saw Woodley retain the belt in a majority draw effort. Following the rematch at UFC 209, Thompson revealed that he injured his knee in his rematch with Woodley. While there has been no word on when ‘Wonderboy’ will return to the Octagon, he spoke to Submission Radio this week to unveil his ideal return plan:

Tom Taylor - May 16, 2017

Could a Stephen Thompson vs. Jorge Masvidal fight be in the cards?  Last weekend, on the main card of the stacked UFC 211, Jorge Masvidal took on Demian Maia in what looked like a welterweight number one contender fight. Though Masvidal was the sharper man on the feet, he fell victim to Maia’s legendary grappling skill, succumbing to four takedowns and giving up almost eight minutes of control time on the mat. And while there were some members of the MMA community that believed he’d done enough to eke out the win, the judges ultimately sided with Maia by split decision.

bjpenndotcom - April 11, 2017

https://www.facebook.com/SoaTheHulk/videos/1308152085887395/ It’s no secret that UFC welterweight Stephen Thompson possesses some of the best striking in the entire UFC given his Karate background. Thompson won numerous International Kickboxing Federation (IKR) championships in the early 2000s. In addition, Thompson never lost a match, going a perfect 37-0 throughout the course of his kickboxing career.

Tom Taylor - April 6, 2017

Despite two valiant efforts, Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson has now failed twice to swipe the UFC welterweight title from Tyron Woodley. Given this, he will now re-enter the exciting welterweight contendership race in an effort to earn himself a third crack at gold. Speaking with BJPenn.com’s Chris Taylor, Thompson gave his take on what should be next for Woodley in the meantime. While the logical answer is Demian Maia, who will look to solidify his number one contender status against Jorge Masvidal this May, Thompson doesn’t believe it’s quite that simple.