Stephen Thompson has challenged twice for the UFC Welterweight Title and failed to capture the gold in both of those attempts.
Thompson has also trained with former UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre in the past and he is willing to fight his friend, if a title were on the line.
“You know, I’m 34 years old, and I don’t think I have the time to wait,” Thompson said to Submission Radio. “You know, let’s say he (GSP) does get that title. Question is, is he going to hold onto it? Is he going to move somewhere else? I don’t know. But my goal, and it’s something he knows, it’s always been to have that title, to win that title belt. So he is a very good friend of mine, and if that ever does happen, that’s something that I would have to talk to him about. Call him and say, ‘Listen, this is, you know, this is my goal. This is what’s happening. Do we want to do this or not?’ Blah blah blah. And mainly I think it would just kind of be up to him. I mean, he knows what my goals are. I don’t think he would be like, ‘You know what, to be honest, I don’t know.’”
When Thompson has challenged for the welterweight gold in the past, they came against Tyron Woodley at UFC 205 and UFC 209.
The big problem for Thompson may be convincing GSP to actually step into the Octagon and fight him.
“Before my last Tyron fight he told me, ‘I have no interest fighting you. I’ve known you for a long time. You’re a good friend of mine. I have no interest in fighting you.’ And I was like, ‘All right, sweet.’ But then he was going up to 185 to fight Bisping. Now that I didn’t win, I’m still there and still it could be possible for me to get that title shot and fight for it again. But if he’s the champion, you know, that’s my goal, man. So it may happen,” says Thompson.
No matter who the welterweight fights next, it will still be awhile before Thompson returns because the fighter recently had knee surgery.
