Stephen Thompson: I Definitely Won Three Rounds

Stephen Thompson thinks he definitely won three rounds  last night (Sat. March 4, 2017) in his welterweight title bout against Tyron Woodley (highlights here) in the main event of UFC 209 from Las Vegas, Nevada.

The pair met in a rematch of their UFC 205 co-main event meeting from last November, which ended in a majority draw and took home “Fight Of The Night” honors. Their second runaround, however, was anything but “Fight Of The Night,” as it was widely regarded as one of the most boring UFC title fights in recent memory.

After the judges’ scorecards were read, it was Woodley who walked out of the T-Mobile Arena as the 170-pound champion, but at the post-fight presser ‘Wonderboy’ stated that he believes the judges got the call wrong:

“Disappointed man,” Thompson said. “Worked my whole life to get here, I thought I won the fight but you can’t leave it in the judges’ eyes. That was all me.”

“I thought I definitely had three rounds, I know he took me down – I think it was in the third round, but I stood right back up. Of course he landed some shots on the ground but it didn’t hurt. Tyron is a big guy, he’s very strong, has a mean right hand, good takedowns, very strong in the clinch position, so I had to play it smart out there and just try and pick him apart. Use my side kick, use my jab, leg kicks, I thought I had it man. And I don’t remember what the scorecards were, but I think somebody gave him a 10-8? Which I don’t see that. Yeah, he knocked me down but I popped right back up. I was good.”

Fans in the arena let out a reign of boos during the five-round welterweight title main event, as both fighters implemented a rather tentative strategy to say the least.

However, Thompson reminded MMA fans that it’s a whole different ballgame when you’re inside the cage facing the top fighters in the world, so he couldn’t let the crowd’s negative reactions get him off his gameplan:

“”You’re the one that’s out there, of course the crowd and everyone that’s watching, they’re not the ones in the Octagon getting punched in the face,” Thompson said. “You gotta learn to block that out and just do what you gotta do. I thought I did what I needed to do to get the job done, but it wasn’t enough, so I got to go back to the drawing board and hopefully keep this going.”

Now Thompson and Woodley have competed in back-to-back match-ups, with a definitive winner being somewhat crowned this time around. The next title opportunity is likely to go to the winner of the Demian Maia vs. Jorge Masvidal fight this May.

Thompson doesn’t know what’s next for him as it pertains to his next opponent inside the Octagon, and will have to regroup with his team and family to determine what the right next step is for him:

“I don’t know to be honest with you,” said Thompson. “I’m gonna go back with my coaches and family to talk about what’s going on. Definitely want to fuel up, took a big shot in the fifth round and two big fights in the fight before that so I just wanted to make sure everything is taken care of up here (head) okay. I’m a fighter, I’m gonna fight whoever, and I’m gonna go back and talk with my coaches to see if we should take some time off or if we should get another fight. It’s kind up to us to conjugate and see what we can get going.”