Stephen Thompson tore MCL at UFC 209, plans to earn Woodley trilogy fight

In the main event of UFC 209, Tyron ‘The Chosen One’ Woodley and Stephen Thompson stepped into the Octagon for a highly anticipated rematch that had been several months in the making.

While both men stated prior to the fight that they were looking to go out and erase any doubts from their first meeting, where Woodley took a majority draw to retain the welterweight strap, the rematch was a rather lackluster affair that saw Thompson back Woodley against the cage as both men remained hesitant to open up with strikes. Ultimately, the fight was scored a majority decision for Woodley, who retained the belt once again.

Now, Thompson is eyeing a future trilogy fight with Woodley, and plans to earn the rematch after receiving from a torn MCL sustained in their UFC 209 fight.

He spoke to Submission Radio:

“I feel I can go out there and I know I can beat him,” Thompson told Submission Radio. “I mean just in the last two fights, I know if I put forth just a little bit more effort and actually go out there and just do what I know I can do, just fight, you know, I know I can beat him. I know I can do it. And the fans do too.”

“Of course, you’re out there being cautious, but sometimes you gotta grit your teeth, bite down on that mouthpiece and go. And I didn’t do that in the last fight. And that’s something that I know if I go out there and do, then I’ll ended up winning. But the fight happened twice and I’ll fight who I gotta fight next and we’ll do it again.”

Thompson also revealed that when he was dropped by Woodley in the 5th round, he fell very awkwardly, and actually tore his MCL:

“I’m pretty sure the ACL’s intact, just making sure there’s no meniscus tears or anything like that. But it’s sore, still a little swollen, but you know, I’m itching to just get back out there and train and this is what I do, man. I do this everyday and this is kind of hard for me just to kind of sit back and watch everybody else train. We’ve got guys from my gym that have fights coming up, so I’d like to be there for them as well.”

on 3/17/2017.