UFC welterweight fighter Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson suffered his 1st career knockout loss to Anthony Pettis at UFC Fight Night 148.
The pair headlined UFC Fight Night 148 in March, 2019. It was a highly anticipated bout between two technical strikers.
Stephen Thompson was was coming off of a close-decision loss to Darren Till in his previous fight. He faced Till in his home town of Liverpool, United Kingdom. The pair were initially scheduled to fight at welterweight, but the bout was changed to a catchweight after Till missed weight. Prior to that, Thompson had won a comfortable unanimous decision over Jorge Masvidal at UFC 217.
Meanwhile, Anthony Pettis was coming off of a hard lightweight bout against Tony Ferguson at UFC 229. After finding some initial success, Pettis’ corner called a stop to the fight at the end of the 2nd round due to an arm injury. Pettis decided to return to welterweight for his next fight against Thompson.
Fans were expecting a high-level display of striking from the two men and that’s exactly what they got. Despite winning the 1st round against Pettis, Thompson was caught with a perfectly-timed superman punch from Pettis, putting his lights out in the 2nd round.
Watch the former 2-time UFC welterweight title challenger react to his own loss to Anthony Pettis:
Following his loss to Pettis, Thompson rebounded with a unanimous decision victory over Vicente Luque at UFC 244. The two earned a “Fight of the Night” bonus for their performance.
Meanwhile, Anthony Pettis went on to lose a unanimous decision to Nate Diaz in his next fight at UFC 241. Following the loss, he returned to the lightweight division, where he faced Carlos Diego Ferreira at UFC 246. Pettis lost the fight via submission (rear-naked choke) in the 2nd round.
This article first appeared on CLOSEDGUARDMEDIA.com on 22nd March, 2020.
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