Name: Stephen "Wonderboy" Thompson on the Relief of Being KO'D
Uploaded: 2021-04-22T17:10:05.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Stephen "Wonderboy" Thompson on the Relief of Being KO'D' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2021-04-22. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Stephen "Wonderboy" Thompson on the Relief of Being KO'D' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2021-04-22. Transcript available.

- The Joe Rogan Experience.
- But dude, you're still rocking
at the top of the food chain.
It's amazing.
- I'm saying, people are saying I'm too old.
I'm 38.
- Well, look at your victory over Vicente Luque,
and then look what Luque just did to Tyron Woodley.
You're still at the top of the fucking food chain,
'cause that was real recently that you beat him.
- Yeah, I mean, it was, what, a year?
It was two years ago.
Two years ago I beat Vicente.
But yeah, man, people saying I'm too old,
and I guess once you get knocked out one time,
you just, they throw you to the side.
- That's people that don't understand the human chin.
It's just like, it's just a fact.
You get hit with the perfect shot.
- It wasn't even hard.
It wasn't even hard.
You know, I've been hit harder.
Tyron hit me harder.
Jake Ellenberger hit me harder.
This was just right on the button.
- It's crazy, isn't it?
- To be honest with you, it was like a relief,
being knocked out.
I mean, I've got close to 80-something fights with kickboxing,
MMA, together, and I've never been knocked out.
And it was always one of those, you know,
going into a fight, this is gonna be it.
- Hmm.
- This is gonna be the time I get knocked out.
This is always going through my head.
And now that it happened, it's not that bad.
It's really not that bad.
I would rather get knocked out than get just the crap beat out of me for five,
five-minute rounds.
- Have you ever been knocked out in training?
- Nope.
- So that was the only time ever in your whole career you've been knocked out?
- Only time.
- And it was a wild punch, too, the fact that he caught you with a Superman
punch.
- I know, man.
The memes after that were hilarious.
I don't know if you saw it, but it was funny.
- You gotta think, though, you've dished it out so many times.
- I know.
- You know, through your kickboxing career and MMA, I mean, there's so many
times you flatline
people.
- And then, yeah, I get knocked out by a guy in a lighter weight class.
My dad, my family is pretty rough.
They bring it up as much as they can.
I was in the hospital that night, and my dad's doing, like, a Facebook live
thing because,
you know, we had a bunch of karate families and karate kids there.
We pretty much sold out that arena.
Greenville, South Carolina, where, I mean, everybody was there to watch me
fight.
And then I get crushed, or I get knocked out.
And then, you know, everybody's wanting to know how I am.
So I did it like, it was probably 2:00 a.m., did a Facebook live, and my dad's
just eating
me alive.
Eating me alive.
I mean, yeah, I got knocked out.
He's like, "Yeah, by a smaller guy, too," and he just let me have it.
But, yeah, that's how he is.
- It is what it is.
- Yep.
- You know?
You took it really well in terms of, like, the way you reacted.
The way you reacted in social media and the way you reacted when you were asked
about
it.
You know?
Showed poise.
- Thank you.
I mean, what can you do?
I mean, you can't just sit there and cry about it.
You know?
- Yeah, it bothered me for a while that, you know, why did I not see it coming?
I normally see this stuff coming.
- Do you think you were relaxed when he hit you?
Is that what it was?
- It was definitely a distance thing.
Because when I had sidekicks, I watched it over and over and over again.
I don't remember any of the second round.
I don't remember any of it.
All I remember is getting up off the stool, looking across the cage, and I seen
his bloody
nose.
He's banged up.
And I'm like, "All right.
Time to pick it up.
I'm going to finish him this round."
This was going through my head.
That's all I remember.
I got knocked out.
Five seconds left in the second round.
- Wow.
- I don't remember anything.
I don't remember sitting up, talking to him in the cage.
People say I was high-fiving people as I was walking by.
All I remember is these sparkles kind of fade away, and I see Chris Weidman's
face right
there.
He's laughing at me.
He's smiling at me.
And he said, "If you ask me that again, I'm going to slap you."
I guess I asked him the same question.
I kept saying, "What happened?
How did I get knocked out?
I got knocked out?"
Just kept saying that stuff over and over again.
- That's what people do when they get knocked out.
They ask the same question, "What happened?" over and over again.
- It was such a weird thing.
And then, you know, not remembering any of that.
And then just being in the back.
It's like I got teleported there.
I was fighting, and then I was there.
And I remember him helping me, trying to answer the doctor's questions.
They're like, "You know what day it is?"
I'm like, "Uh."
And Chris is like, "Steven, come on.
You know what day it is."
He's like trying to help me out, answer these questions.
But that's all I remember, man, is that.
But it was a relief.
Like, I have nothing.
What else?
I mean, that's like the worst thing that can happen.
- Why do you feel like it's a relief?
- Well, you know, it was such a worry.
You know, I've knocked out people.
I've seen how they are, you know, getting up off the canvas and, you know, what
it's done
to people psychologically getting knocked out.
And that's always been kind of like, "How would I handle that?"
You know?
How would I handle that?
How would...
You've seen people get knocked out, and they try and come back.
Maybe as soon as pops up, which is not a good thing.
- It's a terrible thing.
- Yeah, they should give their time and time for their body to heal up.
But, you know, I've seen people do that.
It was always a worry for me.
How would I handle that?
- Yeah.
I always get concerned when I see someone who gets knocked out, and they want
to get right
back in there.
Oh, you're asking for trouble, because you might feel fine, but you probably
are a little
loose.
- Yeah.
It's funny you said that, because they, UFC wanted me to fight two months later
in my hometown.
- Wow.
- And after, the day after, I was going to get some breakfast with some friends.
Still in Knoxville with the fam.
And I get a call from Dana, I think it was Hunter, "Hey, man, you still wanting
to fight
in Greenville, South Carolina?"
Of course, the athlete and myself said yes.
Like, I wanted to jump back in there.
- Yeah.
- But then, you know, reality kicked in, and, you know, I look over at my pops,
and he's
like, I think he already know who it was.
He said that, he just shook his head.
- Who was it that you were supposed to?
- I don't think we had anybody.
The UFC should have made it Anthony Pettis.
- Mm-hmm.
- It was only, like, two months later.
It should have been Anthony Pettis in my hometown, but, and I didn't find out
that
the UFC was in Greenville.
I found that out watching some fights, like, a few months before.
- So you're saying that the UFC should have made a rematch with Anthony Pettis?
- Not a rematch.
- That should have been when you fought Pettis.
- Yes.
- Was in your hometown.
- So you're gonna sell that out.
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