'Wonderboy' Stephen Thompson reveals mid-fight conversations with Kevin Holland - We shook hands on not going to the ground
Stephen Thompson shed light on the conversations that took place between him and Kevin Holland during their five-round main event fight at UFC Orlando.
During his appearance at the UFC Orlando post-fight press conference, 'Wonderboy' revealed the words that were exchanged between him and Holland.
Thompson said that the two welterweights agreed not to take the fight to the ground but that changed as the fight progressed:
"I think I fell down in the first round. Het let me back up. He told me in the first round, he's like, 'Hey I'm not taking you down.' And I'm like, 'Alright, man. Sounds good to me.' So yeah, it was kinda one of those handshakes we had in the first round, nobody's gonna go down. He was telling me to slow down and I was telling him 'I'm sorry' the entire time... It was fun. "
'Wonderboy' added:
"He's hilarious... Whenever we head-butted each other, he was like, 'Oh man, I'm sorry.' I was like, 'Oh no, it's okay. We'll keep fighting, keep fighting.' We had some fun conversations in there. At the very end, he started to shoot and I was like, 'Hey, I thought you weren't gonna shoot, man.' And he's like, 'I gotta do what I gotta do.'"
Watch a clip of Stephen Thompson speaking about his in-fight conversation with Kevin Holland below:
#UFCOrlandoStephen 'Wonderboy' Thompson reveals some of the mid-fight chatter with Kevin Holland 😁 #UFCOrlando
"It was fun. He's hilarious." https://t.co/TUcbHuFSCk
Thompson and Holland engaged in what was a mostly stand-up fight and delivered an exciting affair to the fans present at the Amway Center.
Holland found success in the first round, but Thompson started getting the better of 'Big Mouth' as the fight progressed. At the end of the fourth round, Holland and his coaches waived off the contest as 'Trailblazer' was unable to continue the fight.
Stephen Thompson scored his first win in nearly two years at UFC Orlando
After suffering two back-to-back losses at the hands of Gilbert Burns and Belal Muhammad, Stephen Thompson finally returned to winning ways with an impressive performance against Kevin Holland.
This was also 'Wonderboy's first win in nearly two years. Prior to this, Thompson's last victory was against Geoff Neal in December 2020.
Watch 'Wonderboy's full post-fight interview below:
Thompson mentioned in his post-fight interview that he was in for "the long haul." However, considering his age (39) and the recent losses to grapplers, it would be difficult for 'Wonderboy' to earn another shot at the UFC welterweight title.