Josh Thomson: Training camp for Benson Henderson ‘quite possibly’ my worst

UFC lightweight Josh Thomson is honest to his own detriment at times, and for this, he is one of the more entertaining interviews in MMA.

Prior to his first fight with Gilbert Melendez under the now-defunct Strikeforce banner, he said his training camp wasn’t up to snuff for the then-champion. He went on to upset Melendez in a spirited performance that won him the promotion’s lightweight belt.

Four years ago, Thomson, whose frequent injuries subsequently forced Strikeforce to put up an interim title, told MMAjunkie Radio that he wasn’t fully recovered from a broken leg suffered in training. He couldn’t properly prepare for a title-unification bout with the stand-in champ, who was none other than Melendez. The promotion, as well as the state athletic commission, took note, and soon he was bumped from the fight.

Thomson was very angry at the website for spotlighting his issue, and it was a long time before he returned to the radio show to give an interview.

Time, maturity and promotional necessity heal all wounds, though, and the 35-year-old Thomson (20-5 MMA, 3-1 UFC), who’s once again plying his trade in the UFC after his run with Strikeforce and abroad, is a regular once again. He’s the same bright, opinionated guy, and still as candid as ever.

That, or he’s now in the business of head fakes.

Either would explain why he’s not even bent out of shape over his most recent misfortune – another bad training camp for a fight with Benson Henderson (19-3 MMA, 7-1 UFC) that will surely lead to a title shot if he can triumph.

Thomson, who meets the former champ in the headliner of UFC on FOX 10, was scheduled to fight current lightweight titleholder Anthony Pettis at UFC on FOX  9 this past month. But Pettis was forced to withdraw due to a knee injury he suffered while ripping the belt away from Henderson at UFC 164, and the time he’d need to recover, plus the time to get back in fighting shape, was too long for Thomson to bear. He has, after all, spent far too much time sitting on the bench for injuries to himself.

So Thomson took the network-televised bout with Henderson. The only problem, he said, was it was scheduled for just after the new year – Jan. 25 at Chicago’s United Center, to be exact – and that meant his preparation would be at a disadvantage.

Why? Nobody likes to train when Christmas turkey (or ham, or Tofurkey, or whatever) is on the table.

Additionally, Thomson already had been training intensely for Pettis for more than a month. The quick turnaround left him little time to recover from the previous exertions, and anyway, Thomson is predisposed to overdoing it in the gym. He trained through the change in opponents.

And so, as one of the most important bouts of his career approaches, Thomson said he is wrestling with a lack of live-fire experience via sparring partners, and he’s maybe more than a little burned out. To top it all off, he opened a gym right after UFC on FOX 9, and he’s somehow trying to manage his trainers and attract new signups in the middle of everything.

“It’s been a long camp,” Thomson recently told MMAjunkie Radio. “Falling into focus, falling out of focus, falling back into focus. This has quite possibly my worst camp ever in my whole career, but before people want to criticize and say I’m looking for a way out, you’ve got to remember, I said the same thing about the first time I fought Gilbert Melendez. That was the worst camp I had up until this time.”

If there’s one thing that works to Thomson’s favor, though, it’s that he’s in familiar territory. It’s not the first time he’s felt lousy coming into a fight. It might even be a sign that he will rise to the occasion when he meets the tough Henderson, whose only Kryptonite under the Zuffa banner has been Pettis.

To be fair, he also does pretty well with a good camp. His return to the octagon, which came at this past April’s UFC on FOX 7 event after a seven-year absence from the octagon, yielded a highlight-reel win when he knocked out onetime title challenger Nate Diaz with a head kick.

When he coaches young athletes, Thomson tells them not to worry about winning or losing, but rather to focus on giving their all on the mats. Whether successful or not, there will be improvements to be made. It’s through maximum effort that those things reveal themselves, and only then.

When he steps into the cage next week, Thomson will be thinking about those things. He’ll be getting himself ready for a fight. If he’s learned anything over all these years of fighting, it’s that there’s nothing he can do about a bad camp when that door shuts.

“All that you can do is know in your heart that you did everything you possibly could to make yourself better,” he said. “I know I’m in shape. I’m potentially a little bit overtrained, because I’m trying to do a little bit more, because the sparring hasn’t been what it should have been. So I’m doing a little more mitt work, a little more bag work, so that’s probably why my body is feeling the way it is.

“But that last week before the fight, it’s really just a mindset. You just get your mind ready for a fight. Once you step in the ring, all the crap that happened before doesn’t matter at all.”

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