Former Welterweight contender Stephen Thompson will return to the cage at UFC Liverpool in May when he fights Darren Till. Thompson, who defeated Jorge Masvidal in his last fight will headline the fight night along with Till and aims to leap one step closer to the Welterweight championship.
While Till and Thompson are scheduled to lock horns, UFC has also booked an interim championship title fight in the division between Rafael Dos Anjos and Colby Covington. During his appearance on the MMA Hour this week, Thompson revealed that he is not happy with how UFC snubbed him when it came to the interim title bout.
“I’m upset. Being the number-one contender, why am I not fighting for the interim title? It makes no sense. I know that I fought for the title twice. And the first fight was amazing — we got ‘Fight of the Night,’ we fought to a draw — but the second fight, people weren’t impressed with it. But I’m still the number one contender, so why aren’t I fighting for the interim title? Why isn’t the number two guy fighting the number one? It just doesn’t make sense, it’s like they’re not going by the rankings anymore. Obviously I’m upset, but it is what it is, there’s no changing it now.” Thompson said.
New contract with the UFC
While the interim title snub is something he is upset about, Thompson recently inked a new deal with the UFC. The deal is apparently a good one and Thompson also spoke about the deal during the interview.
“We had some negotiations back and forth with UFC and I am happy with what’s going on in my new contract. It’s definitely an incentive to go out there and do it. Of course, I’m not in the game for the money, but if the UFC are pushing something you really don’t want or that doesn’t make sense, you can kind of play the game with them a little bit. We did that and we kind of got what we wanted, so we’re gonna go out there and have some fun with smiles on our faces.” He added.