UFC 244: Stephen Thompson’s Striking Rules The Day Against Vicente Luque

Stephen Thompson demonstrated tonight that he remains a top contender at welterweight, by cruising to a clear cut win over Vicente Luque.

Thompson’s striking impresses again

Luque moved forward in the early going and the constantly moving Thompson looked to counter with kicks and punches. Luque appeared to tag Thompson with some big shots later in round one, and stayed busy with leg kicks. In round two, Thompson stayed in the pocket more and the welterweights exchanged plenty of heavy punches. A couple minutes in, Thompson momentarily sent Luque to the deck with a beautiful side kick to the face. Thompson followed up with some big shots but Luque returned fire. Thompson planted several more, hard punches before round two ended.

In round three, Thompson sent Luque down once again with a kick, and he let the welterweight up. Thompson’s movement continued to give Luque problems and “Wonderboy” peppered him with punches. Luque continued to press forward and throw shots of his own. Late in round three, Thompson wobbled a bloodied Luque with a big punch but the latter made it to the final horn.

UFC 244 results

Here are the results so far for UFC 244, which is taking place at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Stephen Thompson def. Vicente Luque via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-26, 29-27)

Derrick Lewis def. Blagoy Ivanov via split decision (30-27, 28-29, 29-28)

Kevin Lee def. Gregor Gillespie via KO (headkick) R1, 2:47

Corey Anderson def. Johnny Walker via TKO (punches) R1, 2:07

Shane Burgos def. Makwan Amirkhani via TKO (punches) R3, 4:32

Edmen Shahbazyan def. Brad Tavares via KO (headkick) R1, 2:27

Jairzinho Rozenstruik def. Andrei Arlovski via KO (punches) R1, 0:29

Katlyn Chookagian def. Jennifer Maia via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)

Lyman Good def. Chance Rencountre via TKO (strikes) R3, 2:03

Hakeem Dawodu def. Julio Arce via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)