It didn’t take long for kickboxing ace and undefeated MMA fighter Stephen Thompson to get his next fight after a first round knockout win in his UFC 143 debut. He’ll take on fellow UFC 143 victor Matt Brown at April’s UFC 145 in Atlanta, GA.
Thompson (6-0, 1-0 UFC) used a great head kick to knock out Dan Stittgen in the opening bout of UFC 143, but he’ll face a much more experienced fighter in Brown (13-11, 6-5 UFC) who beat Chris Cope by second round TKO on the same event. After three straight second round submission losses, the 31-year-old came through and beat John Howard in a must-win situation.
Brown then proceeded to lose again by second round submission to Seth Baczynski in November before his recent win over Cope. While Thompson will likely want to keep the fight standing, he does have one submission victory in his young career. Brown has been submitted nine times in his career, but has never been knocked out.
The fight is expected to be on the Fuel prelims portion of UFC 145, headlined by Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones vs. Rashad Evans.