Stephen Thompson

Jorge Masvidal recorded his third straight win at UFC 244 by earning a TKO win over Nate Diaz, and following the event, Stephen Thompson heaped praise on his former foe.

Thompson’s win over Masvidal

Thompson faced Masvidal at UFC 217 in November, 2017, and he outscored the welterweight for the decision win. At the time, Thompson was coming off a decision loss to then champion, Tyron Woodley. Masvidal had dropped a split decision to Demian Maia before fighting “Wonderboy”.

Since then, however, Masvidal has taken out Darren Till, Ben Askren and as mentioned above, he recorded a win (via doctor stoppage) against Diaz. Thompson dropped consecutive fights to Till and Anthony Pettis, before earning a UD win over Vicente Luque at UFC 244.

Thompson weighs-in on Masvidal’s performance

Well, since Thompson has fought Masvidal before, and because they’re both top contenders in the welterweight division, he was asked to weigh-in on “Gamebred’s” UFC 244 performance. The vaunted striker said this (quotes via MMA Junkie):

“I see myself working up the rankings and I figured – I was kind of disappointed the fight, the main event, ended the way it did because I really wanted to fight one of those guys,” Thompson said. “It would have been awesome – nicest guy vs. the baddest guy. It would have been really cool. But we’ll see.

He looked better than ever, man – for sure,” Thompson said. “(He’s) definitely a different fighter from when I fought him last. His striking looked good – very unpredictable. That head kick in the first round was sick. I’ve got to give him props for that because I love to kick people in the head, as well. But I thought it was great. I mean Nate Diaz, he didn’t have an answer. He tried to come back with some stuff, but I can just tell: Masvidal crushed him. After that first round, he didn’t want anymore. I’m pretty sure he wanted out of there, but hat’s off to Masvidal. (He) definitely deserved it, and like I was telling everybody before, that’s my inspiration, bro.”

Yup. Hard to argue with Thompson’s comments here about Masvidal. While there’s no question that for years, Masvidal has been one of the toughest outs on the UFC roster, in the last year or so, he’s been more dangerous than ever. Diaz supporters, however, would likely take issue with Thompson’s comments about him wanting out. Despite the bad cuts he incurred, Diaz kept coming and he told the doctors he could continue.

All that aside, it was big night for Thompson as well, and it will be interesting to see what comes next for him. Can the 36-year-old launch another title shot run?

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