James Thompson is an English professional mixed martial artist.
He fights as a Heavyweight and has also fought at Super Heavyweight.
Over his career he has competed in Pride FC, Cage Rage, EliteXC, Sengoku, Dream, KSW, SFL
and Bellator.
He is known for his "Gong and Dash", rushing his opponents with strikes at the start of
the fight and is also known for his imposing size and strength, as well as being an early
pioneer and icon of British mixed martial arts.
Background Thompson was born and raised in Rochdale,
Greater Manchester.
Thompson was raised by his mother, having never met his father, who is now deceased.
Growing up, Thompson was a talented rugby player, and then worked as a bouncer and a
debt collector.
He also pursued a career in bodybuilding.
Thompson took up the sport of wrestling and competed in a several matches before seeing
an MMA match featuring Don Frye, which ultimately inspired him to pursue a career in MMA.
He started watching DVDs on boxing, wrestling, and Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
Mixed martial arts career Early career
Thompson began his mixed martial arts career fighting in the British promotion Ultimate
Combat.
He developed a rivalry with Mark "The Shark" Goddard after their bout in Ultimate Combat
6: Battle in the Cage. Thompson won the bout by referee stoppage, but Goddard disputed
the result, saying that Thompson had tapped earlier to one of his armbar attempts.
A rematch at Ultimate Combat 8: Retribution resulted in an 18 second knockout victory
for Thompson.
After five straight victories, he faced his first loss to Georgian Tengiz Tedoradze at
Ultimate Combat X.
Tedoradze managed to stop Thompson's initial charge and won by doctor stoppage after the
second round.
Thompson bounced back with a UC Championship bout against Ultimate Fighting Championship
veteran Dan Severn at Ultimate Combat 11: Eyes of the Beast.
[check quotation syntax] Entry into Pride
After defeating Severn, Thompson made his Pride Fighting Championship debut at PRIDE
28 to face Alexander Emelianenko at Pride 28: High Octane.
Despite losing the fight in only eleven seconds, he remained with the organization, earning
quick victories over Henry Armstrong Miller and Giant Silva.
Thompson became known to Pride fans for his penchant for rushing at opponents at the opening
bell, which became known as 'Gong and Dash'.
During this time, Thompson alternated appearances in Japan with fights in British organisations
such as Cage Rage. Thompson's career took a downturn with three
consecutive losses to Kazuyuki Fujita, Rob Broughton and Jon Olav Einemo.
However, he followed up with an upset victory over Olympic judo gold medalist Hidehiko Yoshida
at PRIDE Shockwave 2006.
He next suffered a quick KO at the hands of super heavyweight boxer Eric 'Butterbean'
Esch at Cage Rage 20.
In his final appearance in Pride, Thompson dominated against UFC veteran Don Frye to
a first round stoppage at Pride 34.
Thompson followed up with his final appearance in Cage Rage, losing to Neil "Goliath" Grove
by knockout in just 10 seconds.
Thompson cited a lack of quality heavyweight training partners for his poor performances,
and switched training camps to join Randy Couture's Xtreme Couture.
Entry into EliteXC Thompson made his EliteXC debut against undefeated
8 - 0 fighter Brett Rogers at the EliteXC: Street Certified on 16 February 2008.
Rogers knocked Thompson out in the first round.
Despite this loss, Thompson followed up with a headlining appearance at EliteXC: Primetime
against streetfighter Kimbo Slice.
Entering the fight with a considerably swollen cauliflower ear, Thompson managed to control
the first two rounds with effective ground and pound.
However, both fighters came into the third round substantially winded.
Slice landed several unanswered blows to Thompson's face whilst on his feet, one of which burst
his cauliflower ear, prompting the referee to stop the fight and declare a TKO in Slice's
favour.
The stoppage caused a great deal of controversy.
Strike Box/Titans Fighting incident On 6 February 2009, Thompson fought Steve
Bossé at Strike Box/Titans Fighting's inaugural event in Quebec, Canada.
The event was originally scheduled to be under Strike Box's own rules where only boxing,
takedowns and standing submissions were allowed, but the rules were not accepted by the province's
athletic commission in time for the event.
It was therefore conducted under MMA rules instead.
Before the event some fighters agreed to fight under Strike Box's proposed rules as a gentleman's
agreement, though the referee in charge would not have any choice but to allow ground fighting
were it to happen.
Thompson, who later claimed to be unaware of the agreement, proceeded to take down,
mount and ground and pound Bosse - as allowed under MMA rules - after Bosse went for a standing
guillotine choke at the start of the fight.
This caused the audience to boo Thompson and the referee, unaware of that the fight was
being conducted under MMA rules.
Beer cans and eventually chairs were then thrown into the ring, prompting referee Yves
Lavigne to stop the match.
Although it was originally declared a no contest the fight and its result doesn't appear on
either fighter's official fight records.
Sengoku Thompson's fought on 20 March at Sengoku 7
against New Zealand fighter Jim York, which he lost by KO.
Dream Thompson lost a fight with Alistair Overeem
on October 25, 2009 at Dream 12 Strikeforce
Thompson revealed at the Dream 12 press conference that he has three more fights for his Strikeforce
contract.
ZT Fight Night - The Tournament Thompson competed in the ZT Fight Night Tournament
for £10,000 along with 7 other fighters on 30 January 2010.
He avenged his first career loss against Tengiz Tedoradze in the quarterfinals, his first
win in nearly three years, breaking a five-loss streak.
He was then knocked out by the eventual tournament winner, Rob Broughton.
Dream return Rumours that Thompson could face Ikuhisa Minowa
at Dream 16 surfaced.
However it was later revealed that Minowa would face Satoshi Ishii at Dream 16.
Thompsony instead fought DEEP veteran Yusuke Kawaguchi and lost via a controversial Split
Decision.
Many believed the two majority decision judges were biased towards the Japanese home country
fighter after Thompson retained top position and did much more damage at the end of the
first and throughout the second round.
Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki Thompson fought five-time "World’s Strongest
Man" Mariusz Pudzianowski at KSW XVI on 21 May 2011.
He won the fight via submission in the second round.
In the rematch at KSW XVII, Thompson lost a controversial decision.
After the fight, he launched a profane verbal assault directed at the promotion.
Two days later the promotion changed the result to a No Contest, claiming an error in scorecard
tallying. Thompson, however, has not participated in any subsequent KSW events.
Super Fight League Thompson fought in the main event of the Super
Fight League's inaugural event, SFL 1, against Bob Sapp.
He won the fight when Sapp injured his leg as he was being taken down by Thompson, forcing
him to tap out to the injury.
He next competed at Super Fight League 3 against Bobby Lashley.
The outcome was yet another close and controversial decision, this time going unanimously in Thompson's
favor, giving him his first winning streak since 2005.
Underdog promotions Thompson returned to action once his orbital
bone healed from his previous war with Lashley on 1 March 2014 against UFC veteran Colin
Robinson as part of the Underdog Promotions card at the Odyssey Arena, Northern Ireland.
He won via arm triangle choke in the second round.
Bellator MMA It was announced on May 23 that Thompson had
been signed by Bellator Fighting Championship and would make his promotional debut against
Eric Prindle in the headlining bout of Bellator 121 on June 6, 2014.
Thompson dominated Prindle and won by TKO in the first round at 1:55 minutes.
Thompson was expected to face UFC veteran Houston Alexander in the co-main event on
October 17, 2014 at Bellator 129.
However on October 10, 2014 it was announced that Thompson was pulled from the fight due
to injury.
Championships and accomplishments Ultimate Combat
Ultimate Combat World Heavyweight Champion
Film In April 2012, Thompson was cast for the role
of The Berserker in Outpost: Rise of the Spetsnaz.
Mixed martial arts record See also
List of male mixed martial artists Notes and references
External links Professional MMA record for James Thompson
from Sherdog James Thompson "WarWagon" Fan Club
"Colossal Concerns", Thompson's official blog