Thompson calls Till's missed weight cut 'very unprofessional'
Darren Till's missed weight cut ahead of his first-ever UFC main event not only put the Liverpool card's top attraction in jeopardy, but even got nice guy Stephen Thompson to criticize him.
After a controversial loss Sunday, Thompson joined "The MMA Hour" on Tuesday to discuss how the build-up and the fight went down over the weekend, while adding that he wasn't at all impressed with Till's effort to get down to 170 pounds.
"I was devastated. I didn't think the fight was gonna happen," Thompson said about Till initially missing weight. "From what I had heard, he had showed up weighing three pounds heavy due to family problems and then goes for an hour to make weight and he comes back even heavier - three-and-a-half pounds.
"It's almost like he wasn't trying. That's what is going through my head, like is he even trying to make weight?"
Related: Till 'ashamed' of missed weight, but won't move up from 170 lbs
The 35-year-old was well aware Till would be noticeably bigger for the bout, as he was told the Liverpudlian weighed in at 191 pounds just an hour after Thompson came in at 173.5 pounds, which led to renegotiating a fight-day weight of 188 pounds. With 57 kickboxing matches and 18 MMA fights under his belt, Thompson is well-versed in weight cutting, and doesn't appreciate the trend of fighters coming in heavy.
"It just stinks that these guys they sign a contract to be a certain weight and they don't make the criteria of that contact," Thompson said. "It's just very unprofessional in my eyes and I've got over 70-something fights and not once have I ever missed weight."
Thompson added that he never thought about turning down the fight with Till because of the weight miss, and that he stands behind the decision after the fact.
"I don't regret taking any fight. It was definitely a learning experience. The whole process was a learning experience," Thompson said. "First, the UFC coming to me as number-one contender after fighting the number-four-ranked guy in the division (Jorge Masvidal), going back even further and fighting the eighth guy, flying to his hometown, him not making weight ...
"I didn't like it , but sometimes you gotta do things that you don't like to do and do them anyway. I don't regret it."
Thompson isn't sure who or when he will fight next, but added that he would be open to a rematch against Till following their tight bout.
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