Stephen Thompson and the Future of MMA Fighting

By JM “Shade” Daguio

Fighting in MMA and UFC in particular have come a long way as compared to other combat sports. The Roberto Duran type of fighting in the 80’s would generally be considered as similar today after 30 years, same with wrestling, kickboxing and Muay Thai. But MMA is quite different, going on it’s 23rd year, the sport in 1993 does not resemble the sport that it is today.

23 years ago boxers fought wrestlers, judokas fought Jiujitsu artists and kickboxers fought kung-fu practitioners to prove which martial arts will most likely be useful in a real fight, although some martial arts looked effective than others such as wrestling, kickboxing and jiu-jitsu, it didn’t really answer the question because there is no perfect martial art. The answer was, the perfect martial art was to learn ALL martial arts.

As MMA progressed, fighters have developed skills from different fighting styles, a boxer can now lock up a choke, a wrestler can now throw wicked one-two combos, a jiu-jitsu fighter can throw a decent body kick. However, for a good decade MMA stumbled around very few martial arts that would be effective inside a cage.

The staple MMA background for a fighter would usually be boxing, Muay Thai, kickboxing, Greco-Roman wrestling, freestyle wrestling, jiu-jitsu, sambo and a little judo. Anything outside of that is rendered ineffective and treated as some crazy, nonsense that only works in movies.
Up until the traditional martial artists came, and they came in droves. Lyoto Machida (Karate) Anthony Pettis (Taekwondo) Edson Barbosa (Taekwondo) and Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson (Karate/Kickboxing). The landscape of MMA totally changed, the conventional fighting styles and techniques have to be re-written because these traditional martial artists learned the basic MMA tentpole disciplines such as boxing, wrestling and submissions and incorporated their backround of traditional martial arts which they practiced since they were kids made these fighters dangerous on so many levels.

The aforementioned fighters won in the most devastating but artful ways, Machida for example is one of the few to ever land a jumping front kick to the face when he KO’d MMA legend Randy Couture, up until that moment no one really knew what had happen, when they checked the replay it was like seeing the fight ending blow straight from the movie “the karate kid”. Anthony Pettis also had his share highlight reel techniques when he knocked Benson Henderson down with the “Showtime/Matrix” kick, Pettis kicked the cage to propel himself and while in mid-air followed it up with another kick that reached Henderson’s face. Barbosa for his part gave the world the first spinning wheel headkick that looked like it came out of a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie.

Those moments were great, fans thought “that’s it right?” then came Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson.

Thompson is an undefeated kickboxer (20-0), with an extensive karate background. From a striking standpoint Thompson has his bases all covered, his boxing is top notch, his kicking is second to none, furthermore, his brother-in-law is Carlos Machado, well renowned jiu-jitsu blackbelt that helped Thompson train the gentle art. With all these weapons Thompson only needed to put his skills to the test and boy he did.

Thompson only lost once in his career via a tough decision but has racked up 12 wins with 8 stoppages. His opponents have no answer to his style, his stance is of a karate fighter but he boxes like a golden glove champion. He defends takedowns like a collegiate wrestler, his long arms and already flexible legs give him a headstart in the submission department. The hindrances that stopped other traditional martial artists to compete successfully in MMA didn’t have the same effect on Thompson, in other words, Thompson is a dangerously complete fighter.

Today, Thompson is in the cusp of a title shot, he will fight his former teammate and friend Rory McDonald which will be a tough but doable fight for Thompson, his awkward style and finishing ability will definitely great tools to have at his side but the very exciting thing is Thompson (along with the other aforementioned fighters) changed the script of what fighting should be, he fights with his hands down but his always on his toes, his stance is an awkward, sideways almost back-to-opponent type of stance that puts his opponents to their next move. He throws a very conventional jab but would go back to his stance and throw a spinning kick, which is crazy to say the least, one has to wonder if this is the future of fighting, it might be, it is clearly an evolution of fighting styles being molded together to create this artistic but violent motion that throws opponent on a loop, it is here to stay for sure but the scary thing is the evolution may have just started.

Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson is on a 6-fight winning streak. He will face Rory MacDonald as the main event of UFC fight night 89 in Ottawa, Canada.

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