Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson has been working with one of his former UFC foes from nearly a decade ago.
The two-time welterweight title challenger is set to return this weekend in the co-main event of UFC Nashville. There, Thompson will take on Gabriel Bonfim, a Brazilian fighter with an impressive 17-1 record.
At 42, Thompson is in danger of losing three fights in a row after back-to-back stoppages to the undefeated Shavkat Rakhmonov and Joaquin Buckley, who KO’ed him last October at UFC 307.
Going up against a submission artist as well-rounded as Bonfim, Thompson prepared for war with a former world champion and rival.
Rory MacDonald joined Stephen Thompson’s training camp for Gabriel Bonfim
Thompson shared the Octagon with Rory MacDonald in June 2016 in the five-round main event of UFC Ottawa. Thompson won by unanimous decision, piecing up MacDonald less than a year after his all-time five-round war against Robbie Lawler changed his career forever.
‘Wonderboy’ was MacDonald’s final fight in the UFC. The former title challenger went on to win the Bellator welterweight championship in 2018 before retiring in the PFL in 2022. MacDonald has wins over Tyron Woodley, BJ Penn, Nate Diaz, Demian Maia and many more.
Retired for nearly 3 years now, MacDonald made it to Upstate Karate in South Carolina to help Thompson in his latest training camp for Bonfim at UFC Nashville.
“OG’s,” Thompson said of training with his former foe MacDonald.
“Thank you Rory for your amazing help and insight for Wonderboy’s next fight!” Thompson’s head coach and father, Ray, wrote on Instagram.
“Legends,” Sean O’Malley’s coach Tim Welch said of the collab.
“Red King! It’s so good to see him still training,” one fan said of MacDonald.
While MacDonald has been training with Thompson, the retired UFC star recently mentioned he has no intentions of a UFC return.
Rory MacDonald was one of the first UFC stars to train MMA exclusively
Thompson is still one of the UFC’s best strikers today, but times are changing in MMA.
Once a karate specialist, almost nobody could figure out, Thompson has struggled against grapplers and well-rounded fighters in recent years.
“From when I started the game is evolving every year. I step out, everybody’s getting good,” Thompson said at UFC Nashville media day.
“Everywhere. I come from an era of just specialists where you had the striking specialist in Anderson Silva, you had the jiu-jitsu specialist in Demian Maia…
In an era of specialists, Thompson remembers there was a time when MacDonald was touted to be a future world champion. The Canadian trained MMA exclusively as a teenager and under the tutelage of Georges St-Pierre’s coach Firas Zahabi, MacDonald became a complete, high-level fighter.
“I remember back in the day, all the talk was Rory MacDonald and how good he was everywhere,” Thompson said.
“[Now] everybody’s good everywhere. It’s not just one or two people.
“I’m still playing catch-up,” Thompson said at 42.