{"id":269036,"date":"2018-01-30T09:23:35","date_gmt":"2018-01-30T17:23:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=269036"},"modified":"2018-01-30T09:42:33","modified_gmt":"2018-01-30T17:42:33","slug":"stephen-thompson-gives-take-next-welterweight-title-challenger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/stephen-thompson\/stephen-thompson-gives-take-next-welterweight-title-challenger\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen Thompson gives his take on who the next welterweight title challenger should be"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s crowded at the top of the UFC welterweight division. Closing in on divisional apex predator Tyron Woodley is an increasingly long list of ferocious contenders, from <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/exclusive-interviews\/exclusive-colby-covington-explains-thinks-woodley-dos-anjos-ducking\/?utm_source=facebook&amp;utm_campaign=cyborg&amp;utm_medium=social\">Colby Covington<\/a>, to Rafael dos Anjos, to Stephen Thompson, to Darren Till to Kamaru Usman.<\/p>\n<p>The sprint to the next welterweight title shot, of course, would seem to come down to two men: Covington and dos Anjos. In the opinion of two-time title challenger Stephen Thompson, however, one is more deserving than the other.<\/p>\n<p>Thompson gave his take on the welterweight contendership situation in a conversation with <a href=\"http:\/\/mmajunkie.com\/2018\/01\/stephen-thompson-ufc-welterweight-champion-tyron-woodley-just-fight-man\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MMAJunkie<\/a> backstage at last weekend&#8217;s UFC Charlotte card.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMe and Robbie Lawler, we\u2019re going back-and-forth (for) No. 1 contender,\u201d Thompson said. \u201c[Dos Anjos] beat Robbie Lawler, so why not give [the next title shot] to \u2018RDA?\u2019 He\u2019s up there.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI still think \u2018RDA\u2019 should face me first \u2013 that\u2019s just me. But if anyone does deserve it, it\u2019s definitely him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Whatever the case, Thompson feels its time for Woodley to get off the sidelines and defend his title.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cI don\u2019t know what [Woodley] is playing at,\u201d he said. \u201cI know he came off a shoulder surgery, so I don\u2019t know if he\u2019s just playing for time to he heal up before he gets the next fight. But you\u2019ve got guys that are ranked No. 3, No. 2, that definitely deserve a shot. \u2018RDA\u2019 was the champion at 155. I think the guy&#8217;s looking for a superfight, as well.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cHe\u2019s been in the fight game a long time, so we\u2019ll see where it goes. I really don\u2019t know. Just fight. That\u2019s all I say. Just fight, man. I don\u2019t know if he\u2019s just trying to get some time for his shoulder to heal up and saying, \u2018Oh, I\u2019m not fighting these guys, they don\u2019t deserve it.\u2019&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cI don\u2019t know what he\u2019s playing at. We\u2019ll see what happens in the future and where his mindset is going to be and who he\u2019s going to fight next.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Who do you think should get the next crack at Tyron Woodley?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>This article first appeared on\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>BJPenn.com<\/i><\/span><\/a><i>\u00a0on 1\/30\/2018. <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s crowded at the top of the UFC welterweight division. Closing in on divisional apex predator Tyron Woodley is an increasingly long list of ferocious contenders, from Colby Covington, to Rafael dos Anjos, to Stephen Thompson, to Darren Till to Kamaru Usman. The sprint to the next welterweight title shot, of course, would seem to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54430,"featured_media":225354,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10132],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.7 (Yoast SEO v19.14) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Stephen Thompson gives his take on who the next welterweight title challenger should be | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/stephen-thompson\/stephen-thompson-gives-take-next-welterweight-title-challenger\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Stephen Thompson gives his take on who the next welterweight title challenger should be | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It&#8217;s crowded at the top of the UFC welterweight division. Closing in on divisional apex predator Tyron Woodley is an increasingly long list of ferocious contenders, from Colby Covington, to Rafael dos Anjos, to Stephen Thompson, to Darren Till to Kamaru Usman. The sprint to the next welterweight title shot, of course, would seem to [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/stephen-thompson\/stephen-thompson-gives-take-next-welterweight-title-challenger\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"| BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-01-30T17:23:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-01-30T17:42:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Stephen-Thompson-2.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"730\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"380\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tom Taylor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tom Taylor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/stephen-thompson\/stephen-thompson-gives-take-next-welterweight-title-challenger\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/stephen-thompson\/stephen-thompson-gives-take-next-welterweight-title-challenger\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Tom Taylor\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/e1a3f1e5a045aeaf5b59aa1549a06a87\"},\"headline\":\"Stephen Thompson gives his take on who the next welterweight title challenger should be\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-01-30T17:23:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-01-30T17:42:33+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/stephen-thompson\/stephen-thompson-gives-take-next-welterweight-title-challenger\/\"},\"wordCount\":377,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Stephen Thompson\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2018\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/stephen-thompson\/stephen-thompson-gives-take-next-welterweight-title-challenger\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/stephen-thompson\/stephen-thompson-gives-take-next-welterweight-title-challenger\/\",\"name\":\"Stephen Thompson gives his take on who the next welterweight title challenger should be | BJPenn.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-01-30T17:23:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-01-30T17:42:33+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/stephen-thompson\/stephen-thompson-gives-take-next-welterweight-title-challenger\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/stephen-thompson\/stephen-thompson-gives-take-next-welterweight-title-challenger\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/stephen-thompson\/stephen-thompson-gives-take-next-welterweight-title-challenger\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"MMA News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Stephen Thompson\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/stephen-thompson\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Stephen Thompson gives his take on who the next welterweight title challenger should be\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"description\":\"MMA &amp; 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