Two-time UFC welterweight title contender Stephen Thompson is currently sidelined with a serious knee injury.
“Wonderboy” underwent surgery to repair both his meniscus and MCL recently, an injury that will keep him sidelined through the summer. Thompson lost his rematch with Tyron Woodley for the title earlier this year.
“The goal, to be honest, the goal is to be able to fight in September. I’m not really sure what fights they have in September. Late August, early September’s the plan, but we’ll talk with my management company, the UFC and see if we can get something going,” said Thompson during an appearance on Submission Radio. “You know what, to be honest with you, as soon as I had the surgery I was back up on it the next day walking on it. And it was orthoscopic, so they went in – and I ended up tearing the meniscus and ended up tearing my MCL, so that’s what is actually the longest to heal – they went in, they scoped the knee, took out the meniscus that I had torn, but it’s the MCL that’s actually taken so long to feel better, which is normal.
“My brother Tony played college football and he ended up tearing both MCL’s in both knees and he said it took, man, I mean, for the pain to go away, probably five or six months. But even after that, you can still feel a little bit and I think it’s mostly scar tissue now. But for my game, I’m a kicker. Everyone knows that I like to move, I like to kick.”
As for who he could return against, Thompson has a list that includes two former champions, a former title contender and the likely next person to challenge Woodley.
“I want to fight someone in the top five, but the question is who?” he said. “I wanted Robbie Lawler to begin with, but I know he’s fighting Donald Cerrone coming up. Demian Maia, I hear he has the next title shot. Not really sure what Carlos Condit is doing. I don’t know if he’s back in his training, if he’s gonna retire. I know there was some talks about him doing that. I would love to fight Carlos Condit. The number five-ranked guy right now is Jorge Masvidal. I would love to fight him. Anybody in that top five I think would be perfect, man.”
