It’s been over three years since Josh Thomson lost the Strikeforce lightweight belt to Gilbert Melendez. At the time, Thomson was on an 8-fight win streak, 16-2-1 and one of the hottest prospects outside the UFC, which was a situation he loved, openly speaking about his hasty departure from the organization he only held one loss in – a KO at the hands of Yves Edwards. He felt slighted, but vindicated. Strikeforce was his home from the moment Scott COker built it and let him through the doors, and thirteen fights later, Thomson finds himself back in the UFC, older, wiser and not without a chip on his shoulder.
The Punk’s most recent fight was in May of 2012, a 5 round war against his rival, Gilbert Melendez, in a back and forth fight that many saw go Thomson’s way. The belt should’ve been his again, instead, the judges saw Gilbert win via a split-decision. Now, Gilbert is getting the next UFC lightweight title shot right out of Strikeforce and Thomson is left to fight the previous number one contender and Melendez training partner, Nate Diaz.
It’s not an easy fight for anyone, but Thomson is more than ready and willing for his welcome back match against a formidable opponent. He feels his ranking is absolutely slighted (his name isn’t even on the media’s top ten list), and he’s going to go out there to prove everyone wrong, but first, he has some vitriol to spew on BJPenn.com radio.
“I think you can tell now that the UFC has released their official rankings, all of the sudden the media changed theirs,” “I think that’s what’s been going on in this industry. The UFC is the top dog and they set the standard on who is ranked where. The WEC was owned by the UFC at the time and I wanted to voice my concern. I felt like Gil and I should’ve been ranked a little higher than Benson, Cerrone, Pettis and whoever else was in that category. That was back then and you can take it for whatever you want, but this is now and he’s proven himself. He’s been humble about it and I think if you’re going to put your money behind someone as far as representing the sport and being a good person, he’s obviously up there with the top guys. Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard are right up there, those are the guys who represent the sport to the best. People will respect them and appreciate them, they go out there and give it their all every fight.”“It’s going to be great, I’m glad that we’re doing it here in San Jose,” “I felt like the last shows they had out here were in the middle of the day and I don’t think they got the product out there as much as they could have. I feel great that they put all of us local guys on there and gave us an opportunity to put fans in the stands and show the UFC is a huge draw here in San Jose. I’d love to have cards here at least once or twice a year. I love fighting here, my fans and family are all here. It’s going to be a great show, like all of the old Strikeforce shows it has the potential of showing the support that our fans give us here in the Bay area.
”“It really depends, I really can’t tell you,” “I’m not really too concerned with what goes on there. I feel like I’m one win away from a title shot and I’ll face one of those guys at the end. I find it kind of ironic that if Gil does win and I beat Nate, his last comments were, “Of course you want to fight the guy who beat up your homey,” well if I beat up Nate, guess who’s next in line! You turned down the fight with me before and now I’m putting you in a position to make you fight me.”
“I feel like Dana, Lorenzo and those guys took something from me back in 2004,” said Thomson. “I’m here to get it back with my presence back in the UFC and that’s my title shot that I deserved with the Yves Edwards fight. I feel like if it was for the title back then I wouldn’t have fought the way I fought. I wouldn’t have fought arrogant and cocky, I would’ve fought a safer, more conservative fight. I would’ve dominated him the way that I was for the first 4:45 of that fight. When I’m coming back to the UFC I want to make sure I get what’s owed to me and that’s a title shot.”
