Michael Hutchinson talks with UFC Welterweight Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson about the crazy day that led to him main eventing with Johny Hendricks.
For Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson, this past Tuesday was filled with anxious excitement. The main event of UFC 196 had just fallen apart, and he was waiting to hear the news about the state of the event.
“It all happened fairly quickly. Werdum was injured and they had no one for the main event! I figured that they would find someone since it’s UFC 196, but in the back of my head I was, ‘hey, what if they bump us up to the main event?’ so I wasn’t sure what was going on with it,” Thompson told Bloody Elbow.
“The next thing you know social media started blowing up, my phone started blowing up and my Twitter feed saying ‘You’re main eventing, you’re main eventing!!’ and it made me really excited to be main eventing again for the second time!”
Just like the rest of the MMA world, Thompson was kept in the dark on the UFC’s plans for the event right up until the news was announced.
“I never really got someone to actual ask me if we wanted to do it, it was just… you’re the main event!” Thompson laughed. “But of course it was all planned, we wanted that. We actually contacted them and said that we’ll move up and we’ll be the main event if you want.”
Thompson also understood why the event had to be switched from a PPV event to an event on FS1. Although he won’t get the title of PPV headliner, he’s glad to be fighting for a larger television audience.
“Usually [PPV main-events] are title fights, but since that didn’t happen it’s understandable that they went to Fox Sports 1, which is pretty cool now that all my friends, family and students can watch for free! It’s all surreal to me.”
He also had no problems with having his fight with former UFC Champion Johny Hendricks changed from three rounds to five. He has tailored his last three training camps towards 5 round fights in order to prepare for a future title shot. He assumed that Hendricks has done the same and that both will have their own advantages going into a 25 minute fight.
“[Hendricks] definitely has the experience with five round fights. It’s good for me because I know that I can keep a pace up. It’s just another chance for me to put a foot upside his head, cause now I have five 5 minute rounds to do that.”
UFC Fight Night 81: Hendricks vs. Thompson takes place on Saturday, February 6th in Las Vegas, Nevada. The co-main event features a Heavyweight fight between Roy Nelson and Jared Rosholt.