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 Now a full-time attorney and only part-time fighter, former UFC and Strikeforce competitor Nick Thompson is not only looking forward to his bout at Shine Fights III in May, but also into pursuing his first career interest – law. Opening up to WCS about his different experiences with various promotions, Thompson gives insight into both his past and his future in this exclusive interview.
The back half of 2009 wasn’t exactly kind to the welterweight, especially considering a good win over UFC up-and-comer Paul Daley that took place in February. However, back-to-back losses against Tim Kennedy and Dan Hornbuckle left Thompson reflecting on his impending life path, and he eventually settled on a contract with Shine Fights based out of Ohio and Florida. Fayetteville, North Carolina will host the third Shine event, and Thompson has been matched up with IFL and M-1 veteran, Eduardo Pamplona.
Pamplona will step in with an impressive 12-2 record, which includes a victory over Jose Landi-Jons. But as “The Goat” iterated, Pamplona stands in the way of his ultimate goal, one that he strives for in any promotion he competes within.
“I think in any promotion I’m in, I’m going to be one of their top welterweights. My goal is to have the belt. I fully expect to beat the guy I’m fighting, and to be their first guy fighting for their title.”
But while those goals stand firm, Thompson also now has to balance a law profession, a family, and carrying on a passion that exists in the confines of a cage.
“[Law and fighting] are a lot more similar than you think. I mean, you have an adversary you try and make a strategic game plan on how to defeat them. Obviously MMA is a lot more physical than the law world, but I’m a fairly cerebral fighter and I pride myself on game planning out opponents – finding their weakness and attacking that. I’m doing the same thing in law, so, it’s kind of the same aspect that I enjoy in both.”
Having the opportunity to fight throughout the world and with a number of different MMA promotions, Thompson has a history much more diverse than many. Interestingly enough, Dan Henderson touched on a similar grievance with the upper echelon of the sport, the UFC, in his WCS interview from January, referring to himself as a “worker bee”.
“You have the UFC, where you’re at the MGM and everyone knows who you are, and that’s awesome. But you’re also just another employee. So, it’s trade-offs. There’s things I like about each company and there’s things I dislike about each company,” Thompson stated.
In the rest of the full, six-minute audio interview available only to WCS Insiders, Thompson divulges more thoughts on promotions like Bodog and his issues with Strikeforce, along with a breakdown of the losses to Kennedy and Hornbuckle. He also provides a fairly straightforward reason for his return to Wisconsin from Minnesota, as well as what attracted him specifically to Shine Fights.
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