Ranked UFC veteran ready to welcome Donald Cerrone back to octagon

USA Today

19-02-2025

Stephen Thompson likes the idea of a potential fight with Donald Cerrone.
Cerrone (36-17 MMA, 23-14 UFC) recently announced that he has re-entered the UFC's drug-testing pool and plans to come back from retirement for two more fights. A longtime UFC veteran himself, Thompson (17-8-1 MMA, 12-8-1 UFC) thinks a fight with Cerrone makes sense.
'I'm thinking April, May time, I think would be cool just because I'm a huge fan of Cerrone, and he comes from that old school era that I kind of came from almost 13, 14 years ago,' Thompson said on the 'OverDogs Podcast'. 'So, it's cool that he wants to jump back out there.
'I thought it would be awesome if he doesn't want to cut the weight to 155 maybe to make that fight at 170. I thought it would be really cool to have two veterans like that step back out there and face off against each other, but nothing booked yet. But that's what I'm kind of shooting for, that April, May time.'
'Still on the grind'
'Wonderboy' has been fighting a slew of top contenders in the past decade but now finds himself having lost four of his past five and back-to-back stoppage losses to Shavkat Rakhmonov and Joaquin Buckley.
That being said, the former two-time UFC welterweight title challenger still feels like he can compete at a high level.
'I didn't win my last fight or even the one after that, but we're still on the grind. We're not giving up,' Thompson said. 'I think I got it. I feel just as fast as I did 10 years ago, feel just as good, just like riding a bike, but I do spend more time on making sure that the body is feeling right.
'With massage therapy, with the recovery, the ice bath, maybe taking that day off where I'm not grinding that hard. Maybe I'm working just technique and just flowing, giving the body ample time to heal up, and I think that's crucial.'