Stephen Thompson came up short in his second attempt against UFC Welterweight Champion Tyron Woodley at UFC 209.
Thompson still believes UFC gold is in his future, despite the fact he has failed to capture the welterweight title.
“I hope not a seven-fight (winning streak to get a title shot) – I hope it’s not that many,” Thompson said shortly after UFC 209. “But I could see myself fighting for that title again. I’m not giving up. So I’m going to go back to the drawing board. I’m 34. I’m a young 34. So I’ve got plenty of time, I believe. We may face each other again. You never know. I’ll work my way back up, and you never know. We might do it, Round 3.”
Woodley and Thompson fought to a majority draw in their first meeting at UFC 205. The fighters were seemingly hesitant to engage in the rematch and the crowd let them know about it.
“You’re the one that’s out there, so of course the crowd and everyone is watching you, but they’re not the ones in the octagon getting punched in the face,” Thompson said. “You got to learn to block that out and just do what you know you got to do. I don’t know. I thought I did what I needed to do to get the job done, but it wasn’t enough, so I just got to go back to the drawing board and hopefully keep this going. I felt that I did (win the fight). The game plan was to go out there and pick him apart. When you’re out there with somebody as strong as him, you don’t want to be clinched up. You don’t want to get hit with that right hand. You have to pick him apart. That was the game plan going out there.”
“Wonderboy” has only suffered one other defeat in his UFC tenure and that came to Matt Brown.
