Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson is back on track.
After coming up short from winning the UFC welterweight title on two different occasions, Thompson returned to the win column with a unanimous decision victory against Jorge Masvidal at UFC 217
Thompson came out in his traditional karate stance as he started to feed Masvidal a steady diet of kicks to the body without giving the veteran fighter much of a target to hit in return.
Masvidal got a little more aggressive as the round move forward, but that gave Thompson the opportunity to fire back with a few stinging counter shots including one very well placed overhand right that landed flush.
Exchanging blows here in the final round #UFC217 pic.twitter.com/dH4dNVrUhN
— UFC (@ufc) November 5, 2017
The second round saw Masvidal shoot for his first takedown of the fight but Thompson shucked him off and reset in the center of the Octagon.
Masvidal pressed forward again with a quick combination but he got caught with a hard right hand from Thompson that dropped him to the mat. Rather than jump on the ground, Thompson motioned for Masvidal to stand back up as the fight continued.
Thompson continued to circle until he found the perfect opening where he uncorked a beautiful left hand that snapped Masvidal’s head back. While Masvidal was finally able to land a stiff left hook late in the round, it was Thompson hitting with far more accuracy and volume through the first 10 minutes.
Knowing he was likely down on the scorecards, Masvidal was definitely getting aggressive in the final round but he still couldn’t find a home for his biggest punches with Thompson getting out of the way.
In return, Thompson was throwing three and four punch combinations with at least a couple of his shots slipping through Masvidal’s defense. Thompson would consistently attack the body and then go back to the head and while he wasn’t doing a ton of damage, he was clearly winning on the scorecards.
When the fight ended, the judges all agreed with scores coming back 30-26, 30-27 and 30-27 all in favor of Thompson.
Bounce back!@WonderboyMMA gets the W at #UFC217 pic.twitter.com/CGlY3xW1p6
— UFC (@ufc) November 5, 2017
It was an impressive victory for Thompson against another top five ranked fighter although after failing to capture the belt on two occasions against champion Tyron Woodley it might take a couple more wins to get back into that conversation again.
Still, Thompson isn’t going to forget about the belt even if it takes him some time to earn another shot at the gold.
“I’m not giving up on that title,” Thompson said following the win on Saturday night.
