Thompson is not exactly the next Ali, but i thought he showed good stamina (50+ punches a round over 12) and he was able to impose his will on Guinn who was at a comeback trial back then. The handspeed was not bad either and his chin looked good. On the flipside, he does not have big power which is almost essential if you want to beat Wlad. He is also on the wrong side of 30, although he looked relatively young. His southpaw stance and workrate might give Wlad some trouble, though i think in the end, his lack of power will cost him. I would be interesting to see if Wlad can knock him out. He certainly brings more to the table than Austin (who was also a mandatory defence).
yes, i saw that fight. thompson showed good acurate punching. not too much power though, so there should not be to much problems for wlad. thompson's chin is pretty much untested, let's see how he react to wlad's left hooks and straight rights.
He seems to be a bit of a Tye Fields fighter...quantity over quality. Still, I'm sure he'll give it all he's got against Wlad and it should make for a good fight. Even though I can't see him winning. I think it'll be a game effort before losing to a ref stoppage later on.
I'm just a bit surprised at how unknown he is. As i said, he's not going to be a long reigning champion or anything, but compared to say, Ibragimov, Peter, Virchis, Ruiz, Gomez, he doesn't seem to be that far behind. It's not like his style is boring either, though he's not a KO artist. But neither are Ruiz, Gomez, Ibragimov or Chambers.
Again, I kinda have to use Tye Fields as an example...like him, Thompson seemed to be one of these guys that was happy being a big fish in a small pond. Taking out journeymen but with seemingly little ambition to do much beyond padding our their record. However, since the Guinn fight in June '06 Thompson has stepped it up a level. He's still well below Wlad's achievements but, like you say, is pretty comparable to what other recent contenders have done to get title shots. I'm sure it's going to be a good fight.
