Stephen Thompson Eyeing Fights With Lawler & Masvidal
After losing a decision to UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley in a rematch at UFC 209 this past March, Stephen Thompson had made it clear that he had suffered a knee injury and that it would require him to take some time away from the Octagon.
Now, however, it looks as if “Wonderboy” is ready to return to fighting, and a fight with Jorge Masvidal has peaked his interest:
“Yeah, so I got cleared,” Thompson said in a recent interview with BJPenn.com. “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.”
Masvidal is coming off of a loss as well, as he suffered a decision defeat to former title challenger Demain Maia at UFC 211 this past May.
In addition to Masvidal, former champion Robbie Lawler is also an opponent that Thompson would like to compete against:
“I would love to fight [Robbie] Lawler,” Thompson said. “That is who I was planning on fighting before I got matched up with Tyron. Robbie defended the title the most times since Georges St-Pierre. At one point I was really focused on fighting Lawler so it would be really cool to actually step out in the octagon with him. With that said, I did tell Masvidal I would fight him. We verbally agreed to that so I don’t want to go back on that. Plus, from what I’m hearing Robbie is likely to be fighting for the title next, which he deserves, so right now I have Masvidal on my mind man.”
Lawler is indeed coming off of a victory over Donald Cerrone at UFC 214 last month, and could very well be next in line to challenge for the 170-pound title.
Who would you like to see “Wonderboy” take on next?
