On Sunday night, Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight contenders Stephen Thompson and Darren Till locked horns in the main event of UFC Fight Night 130 in Liverpool England. Till, who was born and raised in Liverpool, edged out Thompson over five rounds according to the judges who were unanimous in their decision in their scoring (48-47, 49-46, 49-46).
Thompson was a recent guest on “The MMA Hour” and told host Ariel Helwani he was confident he did enough throughout the fight to win and believes the judges were swayed by the hometown support for Till.
“I know close fights are very hard in the moment,” Thompson said. “But there seems to be a lot of that happening recently. But I think [I would have won if the fight was not in Liverpool]. I really do. I think so. Darren is definitely a tough guy, man. He’s a very confident person. Definitely built for the fight game. And yeah, I think I would win that fight.”
“You’ve gotta be professional out there,” Thompson said. “I’d like to think of the judges as being professional and not thinking that and them focusing on the fight and not what the fans are doing. I literally didn’t hear a damn thing out there. I didn’t hear the crowd. People were saying that every time a punch would whiff by you — not even make contact — the crowd was going crazy. I don’t know. That could be a possibility, yeah.”
Thompson while waiting for the decision he was preparing himself for the scorecard to go either way and didn’t react negatively to the decision instead immediately congratulating his opponent.
“Once they make that announcement, I’m not gonna go out there and pitch a fit,” Thompson said. “I’m gonna take it like a man and be a gentleman. I’m gonna shake my partner’s hand and that’s how it should be done. I can’t go back and change it.”
Thompson told Helwani he approached UFC president Dana White after the fight and said he’d like a rematch against Till or a chance to face the winner of the June 9 showdown between the winner of Colby Covington versus Rafael dos Anjos.