"These guys are animals" - Josh Thomson says he has no desire to fight again in a stacked UFC lightweight division
Josh Thomson says there is no chance he would return to fighting in the UFC lightweight division due to the huge amount of talent littering the promotion's 155-pound weight class. Thomson has not fought since 2017 and holds a record of 22-9.
Josh Thomson and John McCarthy broke down the recent UFC lightweight bout between Rafael Fiziev and Brad Riddell on the Weighing In podcast. During the discussion, Thomson said:
"When people ask me, do I want to fight again? I look at this s*** and I'm like, 'No. I've no desire. No thank you.' These guys are animals... I heard DC and I think it was even Bisping, who was the other commentator tonight, I heard them say how big his [Riddell] back was. And I was thinking, I was already thinking that, on how big Brad Riddell's back was... I was like oh my god. It was enormous."
You can check out the full podcast episode below:
The fight between Fiziev and Riddell ended after 'Ataman' landed a clean spinning wheel kick on the jaw of the New Zealand native, resulting in a standing TKO.
Fiziev will now likely climb into the top 10 of the UFC's lightweight division and is potentially only a handful of wins away from a title shot.
Josh Thomson's biggest MMA victories
Over the course of his 31 fight career, Josh Thomson competed for the UFC, Bellator MMA and Strikeforce. Thomson only has three UFC wins on his record. However, in one of those three fights he became the only fighter to finish Nate Diaz with strikes.
He has also defeated the likes of Gilbert Melendez, Duane Ludwig and Pat Healy. During his time with Bellator, Josh Thomson put together back-to-back wins before coming up against Patricky 'Pitbull' Freire. Thomson was KO'd in the second round and has not fought since.
He can now often be seen working on Bellator's analyst panel and is also one half of the afore-mentioned Weighing In podcast, alongside 'Big' John McCarthy.