At the post fight press conference, former UFC welterweight champion Johny Hendricks said he wished Stephen Thompson had stood and traded with him on Saturday.
Robbie is sort of the way that I like to fight, said Hendricks, as transcribed by Tristen Critchfield, for Sherdog. You’re gonna bite down on the mouthpiece, you’re gonna throw, and you’re gonna throw some more, and you’re gonna throw some more… As soon as I felt like I landed something he was like, ‘Screw that, I’m back out.’ If he plays that game [vs . champion Robbie Lawler] he could do that.
Thompson was okay with knocking out Hendricks, without sustaining any visible damage. And during an appearance on the Sherdog Radio Network’s Beatdown show, he show took no offense at Bigg Rigg’s comments.
I didn’t take them disrespectfully,” said Thompson. “You’ve got to be stupid to actually stand there and trade blows with somebody as powerful as those guys. Who likes to get hit? Those guys seem like they love to get hit.
I want to have my head and my mind sharp after my fighting career. To go out there and bang with somebody like that is just too much of a risk. That’s just not my style. That’s not what I like to do. I love the point game and being able to hit you without getting hit back. Just to see you break from that and frustrate you, that’s my game.
I’m gonna do [MMA] as long as my body’s gonna let me. I’ve had a few knee surgeries, but my knees are feeling great and each camp I’m getting better and better. I’m just improving. As of right now, it’s feeling great. I don’t feel 33; I feel like I’m 21. I think it’s just a mindset, to be honest with you. I train smart. I’ve got good guys to spar with, guys that are gonna push you but are also not going to try something stupid out there to injure you.
That’s a lot of these gyms where they go out there and try to beat the crap out of each other. I’ve been to some gyms where they’re wearing the UFC MMA gloves going all out knocking each other out, and that’s just ridiculous. It’s why a lot of these guys are young and they don’t have any chins anymore. They’re career is gone because they’ve beaten the crap out of each other. You cannot condition the brain.
It’s something that we’ve always done in our gym. We’ve always trained smart. My dad’s been training kickboxers since as long as long as I can remember — and world champions, really good guys… Whenever you spar, you want to push each other. You can hit hard to the body but keep it light to the head. Once you lose that jaw, that chin, it’s almost impossible to get that back. You can’t get that back. That’s something that’s kind of stuck with us until now.
Some people listen and some people don’t. Those guys that don’t, they’re not welcome in the gym. We don’t want people getting hurt. We don’t want to be that gym where you feel like you have to fend for your life every time you step on that mat. You’ve got guys coming in late in the game, maybe they were the man in another sport, they come in and they feel like they have something to prove every time they step out on the mat. That’s not what being a martial artist is all about.
It’s definitely worked so far. All our fighters have moved on and nobody has left our gym with any head trauma. If you want to keep fighting, that’s what you have to do.”
Credit is due to Thompson’s trainer – and father – Ray Thompson, who founded Simpsonville, South Carolina’s Upstate Karate where Wonderboy has trained basically from birth.
