UFC welterweight Stephen Thompson suffered a tough unanimous decision loss to undefeated fighter Darren Till over the weekend. Now the fighter has come forward with his thoughts on the matter.
“Wonderboy” and Till faced off back at UFC Fight Night 130 in Liverpool, England. In the end, Till earned a decision victory over his opponent after a five round, razor close match up.
Speaking on the latest edition of The MMA Hour, Stephen Thompson revealed that he believes he would have won the fight if it was not in Till’s hometown.
“I know close fights are very hard in the moment. 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.”
“You’ve gotta be professional out there. 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.”
“Once they make that announcement, I’m not gonna go out there and pitch a fit. 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.”
“I do respect everybody who I step in the Octagon with. 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.”
