Stephen Thompson Hopeful of Third Title Shot if Darren Till Defeats Tyron Woodley

Two-time Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight title challenger Stephen Thompson believes his chances of earning another title shot in the immediate future hinge on whether Darren Till can defeat current champion Tyron Woodley this weekend at UFC 228.

Thompson has history with both men. He lost a narrow decision to Till -- who missed weight badly for the fight -- in Till’s hometown of Liverpool, England in May. Before that, Thompson fought Woodley twice for the belt, coming tantalizingly close on both occasions. Their first meeting at UFC 205 in 2016 ended in a majority draw, while Woodley won by majority decision in the rematch last March.

While both of Thompson’s fights with Woodley were close, both fighters seemed to fight conservatively and the second fight in particular offered little in the way of fireworks, which does not bode well for a trilogy fight. With that line of thinking, Thompson believes his best chance to fight for the title again would be if Till can pull off the win.

“If [Darren Till defeating Tyron Woodley] does happen, hopefully that puts me up closer to a [title] fight,” Thompson said on a recent edition of the Ariel Helwani MMA Show. “That would be the right way to go, but as you know it’s very hard to predict. But I am leaning that way, the needle is leaning towards Till a little bit.”

“Wonderboy” is hopeful that if Till does get the belt on the weekend that he deserves a rematch as he believes he won their previous fight in Liverpool back in May.

“If [Till] goes out there and does what I know he can and if he is smart about it, he can win. And that would set me up perfectly, I would think, for another rematch, Of course you got guys above me,” he added. “Colby Covington might get the next shot and you got [Kamaru] Usman moving up the rankings. You got those guys, but I feel like I won that last fight against Till and I think a lot of fans agree with me. If he does win, I would love to have that rematch.”

If Woodley were to retain the belt against Till, Thompson said he would be happy to fight former champion Robbie Lawler.

“To be honest, I would love to fight Robbie,” Thompson said. “I have been wanting to fight this guy for a long time and I am a big fan of his, even back in his Strikeforce where he was just knocking dudes out. He is one of those grinders, man, he don’t care and he just goes out there to fight. That’s why I’m a fan and been wanting to fight him for a while.”