Stephen Thompson wants to decide who the true top contender is at welterweight.
When you pick up big wins, you end up getting called out. And that’s exactly what’s happening to Rafael dos Anjos. While RDA has his eyes on a title shot after taking a dominant unanimous decision victory over Robbie Lawler earlier this month, it appears that champion Tyron Woodley will be out for a while after undergoing shoulder surgery.
Enter Stephen Thompson.
Wonderboy, who had two close fights with the champ but couldn’t take the belt off of him, rebounded with a win over Jorge Masvidal and wants to fight the best. After taking to Twitter to call out RDA after the Lawler fight, he recently spoke to MMA Fighting about why the bout makes complete sense following his injury recovery:
“After my last fight with Woodley, I ended up hurting my knee so I was out for almost six months. I ended up hurting my thumbs in my last fight. I’m trying not to stay out for too long,” said Thompson. “I know if I wait on that fight, it could be almost a year depending on the recovery of Tyron. So I wouldn’t want to wait that long, if possible. I know (dos Anjos is) wanting to wait for that Tyron fight.
“I’m still ranked No. 1, he’s No. 2 right now, so I think it would be an awesome fight. I know there are people out there saying they don’t want to see Thompson-Woodley 3. Of course, the last fight with Tyron wasn’t too exciting, but the one before that I thought it was pretty intense and very exciting, we got Fight of the Night, I remember that. I’m just trying not to wait out too long. My goal is RDA and hopefully we’ll get that, somebody in the top-5 would be legit, but I want to hold on to that No. 1 spot. The guy that’s ranked No. 2 is wanting that title shot, for me coming up in the ranks I had to beat the No. 1 in order to get that title shot, which was Rory MacDonald at the time.”
He also addressed the idea that he could fight Darren Till in England, it’s it’s pretty obvious he’s not a fan of that scenario:
“And I know Darren Till has called me out, but I remember coming up in this welterweight division and I went through a murderer’s row to get where I’m at. You had Darren Till beat Donald Cerrone, who his last two fights before him he got knocked out by Masvidal and lost to Robbie Lawler. He beats one guy and now he’s ready to fight the No. 1 guy? It kind of doesn’t make sense to me. I went back and fought the No. 4 guy, they want me to go back even farther and fight the No. 7 or No. 8, I don’t know what he’s ranked right now. Especially in London, in his hometown. It just doesn’t make sense for me in my career, so I’m sticking to my guns and hopefully we can get that RDA fight if we can. That’s the plan.”
