When Vitor Belfort stepped into the Octagon for the last time against Lyoto Machida at UFC 224, he was 41 years old. A little long in the tooth to be calling himself “The Phenom,” even if the nickname was given to him two decades earlier when the wisdoms hadn’t yet come in. That’s pretty much the same terrain Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson finds himself is as he gets set to fight Gabriel Bonfim at UFC Nashville on Saturday.
With his boyish good looks, you might think Thompson is around 30 or so. But the reality is he’s 42 years old. He’s fought 21 times in the UFC over the course of 13 years. When he debuted at UFC 143 against a Midwestern slugger named Dan Stittgen, he was already 29.
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To put that into perspective, multi-division UFC champion Ilia Topuria is only 28 years old right now.
“Wonderboy” has heard plenty about his anachronistic nickname over the past few years, yet he’s not about to switch things up in the twilight of his career.
“People ask me sometimes, when are you going to change it to ‘Wonderman?’” he says. “It’s funny because, when I met Jack Black, I was like, ‘I’m not changing my name until you come out with a song called ‘Wonderman.’ So until then, I’m still the ‘Wonderboy’ because I’m still walking out to that Tenacious D ‘Wonderboy’ song.”
To take it a step further, when Thompson makes that walk at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on Saturday, he will also hold the distinction of being the UFC’s oldest fighter. Jan Blachowicz was born on February 24, 1983, 13 days after Wonderboy came into this world. It’s both a badge of honor to outlast the field and a somewhat dubious reminder that the clock is ticking.
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Toward what exactly? That’s a question even Thompson doesn’t have the answer to yet. Between his family’s gym in South Carolina, coaching kids, his burgeoning analyst gig on UFC broadcasts and — if he may be so bold — the possibility of a late title run, life is still very much a choose your own adventure.
“To be honest with you, what I think is pretty cool about making it this far is not only am I the oldest guy in the UFC, but I’ve been literally in the top five, top 10 since 2013, 2014 I think,” he says. “So, I hadn’t really dropped below that since then. I think right now I finally did after getting beat by [Joaquin] Buckley. Yet I had some injuries, I was out for almost a year, so I’ve kind of dipped down in the rank [for the moment]. This is the first time since 2014 that that’s happened, though.”
It’s been a solid career for Thompson even if he were to hang up the gloves tomorrow. He fought for the welterweight title twice. He has a dozen victories in the UFC, with former champions like Johny Hendricks and Robert Whittaker on his hit list. He has accumulated eight post-night bonuses, scored some of the best knockouts on record (poor Jake Ellenberger), all while staying near the top.
“I’ve been in the mix and fighting the elite guys in the UFC for a very long time,” he says, as fresh faced as ever.
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“I went back and watched my last fight [against Buckley], and — even though I got knocked out in the third round — I felt just as fast as I always have. I felt precise, I felt accurate. I mean, just the guys that I’m facing are just super tough guys, and that’s especially true with Gabriel. He’s an up-and-coming guy who was undefeated until [Nicolas] Dalby beat him. He’s a stud. He’s coming up, and I’m kind of one of the guys that give back to those guys that are coming up.
Stephen Thompson is still fighting top-tier opposition at age 42.
(USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Connect / Reuters)
“If it wasn’t for Jake Ellenberger or Rory MacDonald, Johny Hendricks, those guys giving me those opportunities when I was working my way up, I couldn’t have done it. Now in the UFC, you get a lot of these guys who are holding onto their spots. You don’t want to give it up to these young studs, but that’s the only way to give back to these guys — give them a test, give them a chance to work their way up just like I was given that chance. So we’re doing it.”
The 27-year-old Bonfim has been a very dangerous out since breaking through on the Contender Series back in 2022. He has four overall finishes, all of them coming by way of submission. His latest, a late second-round D’arce choke that finished off Khaos Williams, catapulted him toward the big names of the division.
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Meaning Thompson.
“He’s a very aggressive striker, and he’s kind of like a counter wrestler,” Thompson says. “He’s got great submissions. He’s a great submission artist with his guillotine and D’arce. I mean, the guy must have a really tight squeeze, but he’s dangerous everywhere. You try to take him down, he’s looking for a D’arce or a guillotine. He’s coming forward and throwing bombs. So I’m not taking this guy lightly whatsoever, because if you’re in the UFC, you’re a dangerous dude.”
It’s like a proverb, but “Wonderboy” doesn’t like to think that he’s 42 years old. He prefers 42 years young. And he still has a dream of capturing the flag late in his career. After all, Randy Couture was 45 years old when he won the heavyweight title at UFC 68. That’s the mindset he says he has to carry to compete at the highest level.
The one major difference from the version of Thompson who stepped into the Octagon for the first time at UFC 143 and the UFC’s eldest statesman who will make the walk Saturday?
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Perspective. He says that these days he soaks up every moment, because they’re fleeting.
“More now than ever, because I’ve got two fights left in my contract and we want to see those through,” he says. “I’m kind of going that [television] analyst route — which is a lot better than getting punched and kicked in the face, for sure, but still be a part of the game.
“But I got two fights left. I want to honor those, and depending on how well they go, we’ll determine whether or not I continue to go. I think more now than ever, I’m kind of soaking everything up. Just trying to remember everything and take everything in, the crowd going crazy, the hype behind it all, you know what I’m saying?
“Just taking it all in.”
