Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson frustrated after his fight is pushed to the UFC 307 prelims

Main card staple, Wonderboy Thompson has seen his high-stakes pairing with surging welterweight challenger, Joaquin Buckley bucked from the final portion of the pay-per-view card ahead of UFC 307 next weekend — in favor of a preliminary feature.

Thompson, who currently holds the number nine rank in the official welterweight division, has twice charged for undisputed gold in the division, fighting Tyron Woodley to a draw and a majority decision loss in the pair’s series of fights.

As for St. Louis native, Buckley, the uber-prospect sits as number eleven in the official welterweight pack, most recently landing his fourth consecutive victory against Nursulton Ruziboev back in May of this year in his native Missouri.

And initially booking a main card outing in Salt Lake City, Utah next week on the flagship UFC 307 card, a reshuffled update has seen Wonderboy Thompson’s pairing with Joaquin Buckley shift to the preliminary portion of the event.

Wonderboy Thompson reacts to main card shift ahead of UFC 307

Reacting to his shift from the main card — flagship staple, Thompson described the move as a “little weird” to him — following a lengthy tenure fighting on pay-per-view main cards.

“A little weird at this point, knowing what kind of a fight this is going to be,” Wonderboy Thompson said during an interview with Bodog Canada. “You’d figure that they’d want to have all eyes on it. Now I’m not sure if it was because, you know, the last time I was supposed to fight in Salt Lake City my opponent didn’t make weight.”

“But, Joaquin Buckley is notorious for making weight so I know he’s going to be a professional and we’re going to go out there and have fun but yeah, it was a little disappointing, ‘Like what’s going on?’ It’s wild. I don’t know why they [the UFC] put that on the card. I mean, there’s some fights on the main card that I think should be on the prelims but you know, it is what it is.”