‘Wonderboy’ Squashes Retirement Talk: ‘I Feel Better Than I Was Five Years Ago’

With losses in four of his last six Octagon appearances, Stephen Thompson is no longer serious title contender in the UFC’s welterweight division.

That doesn’t mean he’s ready to call it a career, however. Following a loss to Belal Muhammad at UFC Fight Night 199, “Wonderboy” addressed the subject of retirement in a video on his YouTube channel.

“I can’t believe people are saying that I’m old and I should retire,” Thompson said. “I feel like people that do retire, when they sit down on the chair, they just feel like they should retire. Like just, their body’s beat up, aches and pains. … When I sit here and I’m sitting down in this chair, I feel great. I feel fine. I feel better than I was five years ago. I just don’t get it.”

Thompson, who will turn 39 early next year, was on the verge of contention following consecutive victories over Vicente Luque and Geoff Neal, but back-to-back losses to Gilbert Burns and Muhammad dashed those hopes. In his latest appearance, the karateka was grounded seven times — the most of his promotional tenure — in a lopsided unanimous decision defeat.

Thompson said that while his camp and weight cut were a success, he began to notice something wasn’t right as he was warming up prior to his walkout.

“I lost my fight – got manhandled for three rounds,” Thompson said. “Yeah, man – it was a sucky experience, to be honest with you. I don’t know why this happens, but I had a great camp. Camp was awesome. I was in the greatest shape of my life — was in shape, felt strong, and then things start to kind of get a little weird whenever you’re getting ready to go out. You’re in the back kind of warming up and your legs start to feel tingly. That’s not a good sign.

“My weight cut was great, actually. I got down in weight super fast, way easier than my last one, and weight cut was good. I think maybe it had something to do with my rehydration – not sure. But I felt exhausted, felt super tired right out of the first round. I was tired. I didn’t want to say anything to my coaches or anything that my legs were feeling tingly.”

Thompson has twice challenged for welterweight gold, battling then champ Tyron Woodley to a majority draw at UFC 205 before falling to Woodley via majority decision in a rematch at UFC 209. After winning eight of his first nine UFC bouts, “Wonderboy” is 3-5-1 dating back to that first title bout. He remains optimistic that he can turn things around after his latest setback.

“Everybody’s expecting me to go out there and just put a whooping on this guy and then he ends up throwing me around for three rounds. I don’t know. I don’t know why. Hopefully something better will come out from it.”