Stephen Thompson got an impressive TKO win under his belt tonight against Robert Whittaker in the opening fight of the main card at UFC 170 in Las Vegas.
Round One:
Thompson starts off with a body kick and Whittaker responds with a solid jab. Whittaker with a high kick that’s blocked and Thompson flurries with punches that don’t find there mark.
Thompson unleashing a few fluid kicks and Whittaker responds with one of his own. More volume of strikes from Thompson early though.
Whittaker tries to rush in looking for the clinch, but Thompson gets out of there in a hurry, eager to keep this fight standing.
Whittaker tries to get his hands going after the early kicking battle and Thompson does a good job of moving away from most of them.
Whittaker continues to push the action though. Hook kick out of the blue from Thompson, but it doesn’t land cleanly.
Nice punch from Thompson snaps Whittakers head back. Thompson trying to counter Whittaker, and it’s largely working, but a couple of punches do get through solidly.
Now it’s Thompson who’s letting his hands go and he staggers Whittaker with a straight right down to the pipe. Whittaker gets right back up of the mat, but Thompson’s right on him, landing a knee to the midsection and then more punches that send Whittaker back down to the canvas.
Whittaker trying to stand again, but Thompson is up on top of him blasting repeated right hands at him and that leads to the referee ending the fight, handing ‘Wonderboy’ the TKO victory at 3.43mins of the first round.
