The co-main event of UFC 205 sees Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson challenge Tyron Woodley for the welterweight title.
Woodley is coming off an impressive first round stoppage of former champion Robbie Lawlor and will be making the first defence of his title.
Thompson is currently riding a seven fight win streak including victories over former champion Johny Hendricks and fan-favourite Rory MacDonald.
#Retrospective: @WonderboyMMA 'nervous getting that call' to fight @JohnyHendricks at #UFCVegas.
Watch Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET on @fightnet. pic.twitter.com/uudPWOLmj0
— Fight Network (@fightnet) October 30, 2016
He is a five time world champion kickboxer with an almost unbelievable unbeaten record of 57-0 with over 40 KOs.
He holds a 5th degree black belt in Tetsushin Ryu Kempo Karate as well as other varying belts in other differing disciplines.
He is a nightmare to fight stylistically which makes preparing for him incredibly difficult. His side-on stance and karate style has boggled most opponents - with his one defeat in the UFC coming against Matt Brown in 2012.
Brown managed to get close enough to ‘Wonderboy’ to take him down five times in three rounds and won an unanimous decision despite having been out-struck 67-36.
His opponent at the weekend will no doubt have taken note of this. An accomplished wrestler himself, Woodley will most likely look to stay on top of Thompson from the opening bell and give him as little space as possible to operate.
Thompson has learned from his lone defeat and will look to keep Woodley at distance while he picks him off with leg-kicks.
Prediction: Thompson by KO. He will be expecting the champion to shoot for takedowns regularly and I expect him to land a flying-knee when Woodley shoots one of those times.
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