Steven "Wonderboy" Thompson will retire after next fight

There was a time when "Wonderboy" was on everyone's minds and he was something that we really looked forward to seeing in the Octagon. Almost everyone else did as well and there was a time that he looked like "by gawd, this guy could go all the way!"

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unfortunately for Wonderboy, and is true for so many other fighters, it's like as soon as people start having faith in you and your abilities a switch goes off an all of a sudden you are terrible or not terrible I guess, but no longer the type of person that anyone thinks has a shot at gold.

Wonderboy is an unusual character and I always appreciated the fact that he had no tattoos, which is in stark contrast to the average UFC (or any MMA promotion) where it seems they just can't wait to make their body look like the interior of a truck stop bathroom cubicle.

I admired him for his ability and his "clean cut" look. I would later (today) find out that the reason why he has no tattoos is because his UFC contract stipulated that he wasn't allowed to get any. Apparently, UFC saw a lot in the guy a while back and wanted a clean cut person as a character of sorts.

Well done UFC. It worked. I had no idea.

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he would ringwalk to "Wonderboy" by Tenacious D a silly son to have as your ringwalk, and that combined with his nice and respectful attitude towards all of his opponents quickly made him a fan favorite.

Well, it's pretty easy to lose enthusiasm towards someone's fights when it is just expected that they are going to lose. With Wonderboy this was so much more surprising than with other fighters because he dispatched some of the best.

He has wins over Kevin Holland, Geoff Neil, and Jorge Masvidal. This is going back a ways but he also defeated Rory MacDonald, and Johny Hendricks in their primes.

UFC did what they always did and streamlined him for the top and well, that didn't work out so well for him. He went on a 7 fight win streak and tore through everyone in the late 2010's. UFC desperately wanted him to be champion so they gave him 2 shots at the belt vs Tyron Woodley (booooo) in a row, and he lost them both. well, that's not fair. The first one was declared a draw and it was bullcrap. That was the day that I found out that if 2 judges rule the fight a draw and the other rules that one guy wins, that the fight is a draw. Huh?

Whatever. Moving on. Things unfortunately got pretty bad pretty fast for Wonderboy from that point forward and once we turned at the decade mark into 2020, things got really bad. Now the name Wonderboy is kind of tarnished and it isn't often that he even makes it to a main card on a numbered event. When he does make it there such as he did in 296 and 307, it really seems like the UFC is using him to springboard the other guy and that is exactly what happened when he was KO'd and submitted in back-to-back fights. he has won only 1 of his past 6 fights and a lot of those fights were against people that most people have probably never heard of.

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He could have won that fight if only he had some tattoos to protect him from KO's.

Anyway, a lot of fighters stick around for too long after they are clearly done and while there are some contracts and all that, the UFC has this sort of awful strategy where they will put the guys on the downslope that used to be great and push them into matches that they are meant to lose to promote a new up and comer. I'm not saying Wonderboy and others dive on the fight, they are trying, they just aren't good anymore.

Steven is also 43 and in MMA at least, that is ancient. It is time. His final fight will probably be stacked in his favor as much as it possibly can be in Charles Radtke. It took me a minute to remember who that is. UFC is really not on my mind that much anymore it seems. People like Wonderboy leaving only makes this problem greater for me.

His final fight takes place in MSG in NYC on November 14th.