Stephen Thompson analyzes Robbie Lawler’s loss to Tyron Woodley

When Tyron Woodley stepped into the Octagon Saturday night in the main event of UFC 201 to fight Robbie Lawler, welterweight #1 contender Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson was paying close attention. Thompson, who was on the FS1 broadcasting team for the evening, knew he would likely be fighting the winner of the scrap.

Ultimately, Tyron Woodley knocked out Lawler in just minutes to win the welterweight championship. Despite that, during the FS1 post-fight show, he shut down Stephen Thompson’s chances of a title shot, opting to call out Nick Diaz instead.

This week, Thompson appeared on The MMA Hour to discuss Lawler’s fight with Woodley, saying:

“That’s something you can’t do against Tyron Woodley, is back up. Because if you give him that forward momentum he’s gonna land a shot or he’s gonna end up taking you down.”

“I was literally expecting to see Robbie Lawler go out there and just overwhelm Tyron, the Robbie that we’ve seen in the past. But as soon as they got out there, I realized for some reason this is not the same Robbie that we normally see.”

“I think it was just a really good punch. I think Robbie is the exact same fighter as we’ve had, I just didn’t see it that night. Maybe it just wasn’t his night. But I think it was the fact that Tyron has some power in his hands, in that right hand.”