Stephen Thompson talks of his upcoming welterweight bout with friend and former training partner, Rory MacDonald.
Last week, it was announced that Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson would be taking on Rory MacDonald following his mechanical, first-round destruction of Johny Hendricks at UFC Fight Night 82.
Thompson, who is riding a 6-fight win streak, formed a brotherly-like relationship with MacDonald during his days spent training at the world renowned Tristar Gym, and says he would have preferred to challenge Robbie Lawler for the welterweight title.
“After the Hendricks fight, I wanted Lawler, but sometimes that just doesn’t work out,” Thompson told UFC.com. “I never really wanted to fight Rory because we’ve done training before, known each other for a long time, spent many years up at Tristar with (head coach) Firas (Zahabi) and Georges. That’s one thing I try to avoid, but sometimes you have to go out there and do it. It’s been a few years (since I last trained up there), but we’ve crossed paths many times – hung out, chatted. To me, it’s kind of like fighting a brother and me, I’ve got two brothers and we fight all the time. We both know it’s business and we’ll be friends before and after the fight; now we just get to punch each other in the face.”
“The Red King” last fought Lawler in a pulsating back-and-forth rematch in the co-main event of UFC 189, which saw “Ruthless” shatter MacDonald’s nose in the fifth round. His fight with Thompson will mark his first Octagon outing in almost a year, as the two are scheduled to clash at UFC Fight Night 89 on June 18th.
With Thompson booked up against MacDonald, it’s been teased at by Dana White that Nate Diaz — who submitted Conor McGregor at UFC 196 — could challenge Lawler for the 170-pound belt instead.