Stephen Thompson Believes He Could Win If The Fight Didn’t Take Place In Liverpool

The fight between Stephen Thompson and Darren Till is one of the most controversial ones during the last year. The shocking point system in the main event of UFC Liverpool, that left Wonderboy stunned, and surprised everybody, even the veteran referee John McCarthy, might have something to do with the fact that Darren Till was fighting in his backyard.

Stephen Thompson was defeated (48-47, 49-46, 49-46) but all three media members, listed on MMADecisions.com, claimed Wonderboy was the winner. In the conversation with Ariel Helwani from MMA Hour, Thompson said judges could have done the better job, and he would probably win if the fight took place elsewhere. (via MMAFighting.com)

“I know close fights are very hard in the moment,” Thompson said. “But there seems to be a lot of that happening recently. But I think [I would have won if the fight was not in Liverpool]. I really do. I think so. Darren is definitely a tough guy, man. He’s a very confident person. Definitely built for the fight game. And yeah, I think I would win that fight.”

Thompson leaves the possibility that the wild crowd could force the judges to vote for Darren Till.

“You’ve gotta be professional out there,” Thompson said. “I’d like to think of the judges as being professional and not thinking that and them focusing on the fight and not what the fans are doing. I literally didn’t hear a damn thing out there. I didn’t hear the crowd. People were saying that every time a punch would whiff by you — not even make contact — the crowd was going crazy. I don’t know. That could be a possibility, yeah.”

Stephen Thompson didn’t show many emotions when the scorecards were read. He was mentally prepared for Till’s victory when the cards were read. It looks like Stephen Thompson was looking at UFC Liverpool as the possibility of an unfair contest from the beginning.

“Once they make that announcement, I’m not gonna go out there and pitch a fit,” Thompson said. “I’m gonna take it like a man and be a gentleman. I’m gonna shake my partner’s hand and that’s how it should be done. I can’t go back and change it.”

After the fight, Stephen Thompson was talking to Dana White, asking for a rematch against Daren Till, or a possible fight versus Colby Covington or Rafael dos Anjos, depending on the result of the UFC Welterweight Interim Title bout.

“I do respect everybody who I step in the Octagon with,” Thompson said. “I know there’s a strategy to a lot of these guys making comments about people, making them mad. It’s part of the strategy to get in their head. It’s mental warfare, basically. And I understand that.”

Fighters who tolerate bad scorecards are rare and Stephen Thompson deserves a medal for what he did. What are your thoughts, should Wonderboy be more aggressive when the shocking decision was read?

Published on May 30, 2018 at 12:00 am
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