{"id":330864,"date":"2019-11-04T11:14:33","date_gmt":"2019-11-04T19:14:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=330864"},"modified":"2019-11-04T11:14:33","modified_gmt":"2019-11-04T19:14:33","slug":"stephen-thompson-prefers-masvidal-or-diaz-fights-over-maia-matchup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/stephen-thompson-prefers-masvidal-or-diaz-fights-over-maia-matchup\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen Thompson prefers Masvidal or Diaz fights over Maia matchup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fresh off a “Fight of the Night” win over Vicente Luque at UFC 244<\/a>, welterweight contender Stephen Thompson wants to fight Jorge Masvidal or Nate Diaz next, not Demian Maia.<\/p>\n

Thompson picked up a unanimous decision win over Luque in an exciting back-and-forth striking battle between two of the welterweight division’s most exciting fighters. The win snapped Thompson’s two-fight losing skid, while Luque’s six-fight win streak was broken with the loss. It was a win that keeps Thompson entrenched in the division’s top-10.<\/p>\n

Speaking after the event with reporters<\/a>, Thompson was asked who he wants next. “Wonderboy” was asked about a potential fight against Maia who, like him, stands out as one of the nicest guys in the sport. He says he’d rather fight Masvidal or Diaz instead.<\/p>\n

“(Maia’s) a tough and scary guy, man, I don’t care what you say. The guy’s 41 but he would kill you in a heartbeat on the ground, grab you by the wrists and just drag you down there and choke you out. Very scary guy. I would have to take some time to really prepare for him, but hey, I would love to scrap anyone in that division man, especially the top-15, I would love to step out there with them,” Thompson said.<\/p>\n

“But my mind is set forward right now. I would love to fight Masvidal or Nate. But a Maia fight could definitely happen in the future for sure.”<\/p>\n

Thompson actually has a previous win over Masvidal from November 2017 but hasn’t fought Diaz yet. With Masvidal likely getting a welterweight title shot next, a fight against Thompson doesn’t seem likely, but perhaps a Diaz matchup could take place sometime. It’s not lost on Thompson that a potential fight against either would pit the UFC’s “nicest” guy in Thompson against two of the “baddest” in Masvidal or Diaz.<\/p>\n

“I was kind of disappointed the main event ended the way it did because I really wanted to fight one of those guys, that would have been awesome. Nicest guy vs. the baddest guy, that would have been really cool. But we’ll see,” Thompson said.<\/p>\n

Who do you think Stephen Thompson should fight next?<\/p>\n

This article first appeared on\u00a0<\/i>BJPENN.COM<\/i><\/span><\/a>\u00a0on 11\/4\/2019.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fresh off a “Fight of the Night” win over Vicente Luque at UFC 244, welterweight contender Stephen Thompson wants to fight Jorge Masvidal or Nate Diaz next, not Demian Maia. Thompson picked up a unanimous decision win over Luque in an exciting back-and-forth striking battle between two of the welterweight division’s most exciting fighters. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54474,"featured_media":279531,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10132,39610],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nStephen Thompson prefers Masvidal or Diaz fights over Maia matchup | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Fresh off a "Fight of the Night" win over Vicente Luque at UFC 244, Stephen Thompson wants to fight Jorge Masvidal or Nate Diaz next, not Demian Maia.\" \/>\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\/ufc\/stephen-thompson-prefers-masvidal-or-diaz-fights-over-maia-matchup\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Stephen Thompson prefers Masvidal or 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