Breaking: Stephen Thompson confirms he's fighting on the upcoming UFC 291 card
UFC veteran Stephen Thompson confirmed that he will make his first appearance in the octagon for 2023 at UFC 291.
Thompson took to Twitter to announce that he will be facing off against Michel Pereira in a welterweight bout. The matchup will most likely feature on the preliminary card on fight night. 'Wonderboy' wrote:
"Contract [writing hand emoji] see y’all July 29th #UFC291"
Check out his announcement tweet below:
@WonderboyMMA @MMAFighting Why though? Who is wonderboys manager for Christ sake! Man is a legend and should only be fighting massive names at this point in his career.
Burns was a horrible match up, I never would have done that fight if I was manager. Same with Belal, he had nothing to win from Belal… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Stephen Thompson turned around a dissapointing set of losses in his last fight against Kevin Holland at UFC on ESPN: Thompson vs. Holland. He bounced back from his defeats against Gilbert Burns and Belal Muhammad with a TKO win over Holland. The main event thriller won the Fight of the Night bonus.
Thompson's opponent Michel Pereira has enjoyed a far better run of form and is currently on a five-fight winning streak. He is currently ranked No.15 in the welterweight rankings and a high-profile result against 'Wonderboy' would cap off his winning streak perfectly.
UFC 291 will take place on July 29, 2023 at the Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City, Utah. It will be headlined by a lightweight clash between former title challengers Dustin Poirier and Justin Gaethje. Former middleweight champion Alex Pereira will also make his light heavyweight debut against former champ Jan Blachowicz.
Ian Garry calls for main event matchup against Stephen Thompson in Ireland, claims they would 'sell it out'
Surging welterweight Ian Garry notched his fifth straight victory in the octagon against Daniel Rodriguez at UFC Fight Night: Rozenstruik vs. Almeida.
'The Future' has outlined his championship contention plans and he intends to fight five more times and against all possible contenders before vying for the title. He mentioned to Ariel Helwani that a fight card headliner in his home country against Stephen Thompson would be a great success.
Garry said:
“Could you imagine me vs. Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson as the main event in Dublin, and stack the card with Irish and European UFC talent from top to bottom?Wonderboy and I would sell it out, and I believe [Dana White] will bring us back and I believe he’ll make a return to Ireland at some time, early next year, I believe. I’ll put my nation on my back, keep winning.”
The fight would pit two fan favorites and two excellent strikers from the welterweight division, potentially making for great viewing.