Stephen Thompson also believes a fight against Michael Page could turn out to be lackluster.
After Page defeated Kevin Holland in his octagon debut last month at UFC 299, many threw out Thompson’s name as his next opponent. Page (22-2 MMA, 1-0 UFC) shut down that idea, suggesting that, with their striking styles, the fight could end up being boring – and Thompson (17-7-1 MMA, 12-7-1 UFC) agrees.
“Even when he was in Bellator, everybody was like, ‘Man, you know MVP vs. ‘Wonderboy,'” Thompson told Inside Fighting. “Great performance, I think he did a really good job out there. Distance management, covering the gap, being tricky – especially with somebody like Kevin Holland. But, you know, everybody asks that, and I think actually Michael ‘Venom’ Page said it very well: A positive and a positive doesn’t always make a positive. We have such similar styles, it could possibly be a very boring fight for everybody.
“We’re both counter strikers, very similar styles, so it could possibly be me and him bouncing out there in the middle just waiting on somebody to do something and even though we have similar styles, that doesn’t always make it an exciting fight. So he’s a good friend of mine, good martial artist, karate guy. At this point, I don’t think it’s necessary, but he’s going to keep working his way up, and he might even jump past me to fight some of these guys because he’s on such a hype train right now.”
Thompson is coming off a submission loss to undefeated Shavkat Rakhmonov at UFC 296. While he’s open to facing another strong grappler next, if he’s matched up against a striker, he wants it to be a show for the fans.
“It gets so much hype around it and when it’s not exactly what everybody expects, it’s known as one of the first fights out there,” Thompson said. “I’m in the entertainment industry, and I want my fights to be entertaining. I want the fans to go, ‘That was epic.’ Kind of like the Kevin Holland fight that I had because he was game.
“This was a guy that (has a) completely different fighting style as Michael ‘Venom’ Page. He comes forward, he likes to duke it out, he’s got charisma, he likes to chat out there, things like that. Ian Garry would be another possible one that I would love to step out there in the cage, as well, and to test myself.”
