A welterweight fight between Stephen Thompson and Gabriel Bonfim has been announced for UFC On ESPN 70 in Nashville, Tennessee on July 12th.
The 42-year-old Thompson was knocked out in his latest fight against Joaquin Buckley at UFC 307 in October of last year.
That continued a marked decline in ‘Wonderboy’s’ form in recent years, having now lost four of his last five fights, with a TKO win over Kevin Holland being sandwiched in-between defeats against top-tier talents like Shavkat Rakhmonov, Belal Muhammad and Gilbert Burns.
Now Thompson will go up against a rising welterweight fighter 15 years his junior in the 27-year-old Bonfim, whose career record so far stands at an impressive 17-1.
That includes a 4-1 run in the Octagon so far, with three of his wins coming by way of submission against Kalinn Williams, Trevin Giles and Mounir Lazzez.
Bonfim isn’t yet ranked at 170lbs, but a high-profile win over the 12th placed Thompson could change that.
Thompson vs. Bonfim joins a UFC On ESPN 70 card that’s set to be headlined by a heavyweight fight between Derrick Lewis and Tallison Teixeira, while Calvin Kattar goes up against Steve Garcia, Jake Matthews fights Chidi Njokuani and Vitor Petrino locks horns with Austen Lane.
