Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson Tops Rory MacDonald At UFC Ottawa With Beautiful Karate

UFC Fight Night 89 saw Rory MacDonald and Stephen Thompson step into the Octagon in front of  Ottawa fans, knowing that with a win, a welterweight title shot for the victor was all but guaranteed. Both these men are undoubtedly at the top of the welterweight division with Rory MacDonald ranked #1 and Thompson #2 and holding the division’s longest winning streak at 6. Both men also train together at Tristar gym, so they’re intimately familiar each other and know how dangerous this fight would be. To add to the drama, Rory MacDonald knew this was the last fight on his UFC contract. The stakes could only be higher if there was a gold belt cage side.

The fight started with both men feeling each other out. MacDonald went for MULTIPLE Imanari rolls into heel hooks, which was crazy to see, but Wonderboy was able to step out of Rory Mac’s submission attempts. Rory looked solid coming back from an 11-month layover from one of the most brutal fights of all-time, but Wonderboy made him look slow in the opening frames. Of course, the crowd booed, but what we were seeing was a chess match from both fighters, and neither man wanted to give an opening to the other.

In the championship rounds, Rory started landing heavier strikes, but Wonderboy’s superlative counterstriking kept MacDonald on his heels and confused. Things ramped up in the fifth round, with Rory doing the whole bite down on the mouthpiece and move forward thing, but after a brief brawl and rocking of Wonderboy, Rory had his nose busted open by a spinning heel kick. The same nose that was destroyed by Robbie Lawler. Blood poured from MacDonald’s face, a hematoma grew, and even with Rory stepping forward with bad intentions, Wonderboy worked the angles and looked like he could fight another 10 rounds. It was a beautiful performance.

After the fight, Stephen Thompson called out the winner of the welterweight title fight between Robbie Lawler and Tyron Woodley at UFC 201. He’ll get his shot, no doubt. Hopefully, he’ll face Robbie Lawler in what could potentially be a stand-up fight for the ages. Against Woodley, he would have some serious wrestling to combat, but if he’s dealt with great wrestling before against Johnny Hendricks.

Full results below:

Main card
Stephen Thompson def. Rory MacDonald via unanimous decision

Donald Cerrone def. Patrick Cote via TKO (round 3).

Steve Bosse def. Sean O’Connell via unanimous decision.

Olivier Aubin-Mercier def. Thibault Gouti via submission (round 3).

Joanne Calderwood def. Valerie Letourneau via TKO (round 3).

Undercard
Jason Saggo def. Leandro Silva via split-decision.

Misha Cirkunov def. Ion Cutelaba via submission (round 3).

Krzysztof Jotko def. Tamdan McCrory via KO (round 1).

Joe Soto def. Chris Beal via submission (round 3).

Elias Theodorou def. Sam Alvey via unanimous decision.

Randa Markos def. Jocelyn Jones-Lybarger via unanimous decision.

Colby Covington def. Jonathan Meunier via submission (round 3).

Ali Bagautinov def. Geane Herrera via unanimous decision.