James "The Colossus" Thompson (born December 16, 1978) is a British Mixed Martial Arts fighter. He currently fights as a heavyweight for Elite XC in USA and Cage Rage in the United Kingdom. He is characterized by his size, strength, affability and humility. In interviews he has described his occupations before professional fighting as "debt collector" and "Gypsy remover"[2]. He later explained this employment in an interview on the Big O and Dukes radio show.[3]
Thompson is known for his tendency to stare down his opponents, similar to that of Wanderlei Silva. He tends to start quickly, rushing up to his opponents as soon as the match starts. His punk image and rowdy brawling style earned him the nickname "Megapunk" and his fan base often refers to themselves as the James Thompson War Wagon.
Biography
Thompson grew up in Rochdale near Manchester, had no real direction when he left school, so started 'working the door' in his home town. Fed up with the lack of opportunities, he moved to Bristol in 2001 to start a fresh in a new city. Again Thompson found work on the local doors, which gave him the chance to meet new friends, part of the social activities were wrestling, which Thompson took up as sport. Thompson competed in a couple of wrestling matches before seeing That 'Don Frye' mma fight, which ultimately gave James his calling.
Professional MMA Debut
Thompson began his Mixed Martial Arts career fighting for the noted “old school” British association, Ultimate Combat. His professional debut was against Mark “The Shark” Goddard at Ultimate Combat 6: Battle in the Cage. The fight ended by referee stoppage at the 1:39 mark of Round 2, with Thompson the victor. Goddard disputed the result, saying that Thompson had tapped earlier to one of his armbar attempts. This sparked a rivalry between the two, which would later be resolved in spectacular fashion at Ultimate Combat 8: Retribution where Thompson won a second fight against Goddard in only eighteen seconds.
'Gong and Dash'
Thompson came in dramatically bigger and in better shape for his second fight at Ultimate Combat and defeated his opponent, Ritchie Cranny, in just over a minute and a half. This fight saw the birth of what would become something of a trademark for him - christened by Japanese Pride FC fans as 'Gong and Dash'. His entrance, the stare down, and his aggressive fighting style appealed to many and made him extremely popular amongst fight fans the world over.
Thompson suffered his first loss from Georgian fighter Tengiz Tedoradze. Tedoradze, regarded by many as Britain’s best heavyweight fighter at the time, managed to check Thompson’s initial charge and won via doctor stoppage after the second round. He was then offered an Ultimate Combat World Championship bid against Ultimate Fighting Championship veteran Dan “The Beast” Severn at Ultimate Combat 11: Eyes of the Beast which he won via a unanimous decision.
On the same day of his title bout with Severn, Thompson was told that he had been offered a fight at the well known fight organization, Pride FC. This made him the United Kingdom's third mixed martial artist to compete in Pride’s ring, only preceded by English boxer and kickboxer, Matt Skelton and Steve White [1]
PRIDE
After defeating Severn, he came to PRIDE to face Aleksander Emelianenko at Pride 28: High Octane. Thompson began with his trademark staredown, and despite losing the fight in only eleven seconds, he remained with the organization, earning quick victories over Henry Miller and Giant Silva. Thompson also continues to fight in the United Kingdom in organizations such as Cage Rage.
At PRIDE Shockwave 2006 on December 31, 2006, Thompson caused an upset when he defeated Olympic judo gold medalist and renowned heavyweight fighter Hidehiko Yoshida. Thompson credits much of his success in this fight to legendary early English MMA pioneer and celebrity fitness trainer Thomas Bunbury.(http:youtube.com/watch?v=zIxxNdOmHD8)
At Pride 34, Thompson defeated legendary American fighter Don Frye in an exciting match. The fight was considered by many as being stopped late.[citation needed]
Back To
Cage Rage
He lost his next fight against Eric "Butterbean" Esch at Cage Rage 20 by KO in 43 seconds in what many of his fans claimed was an extremely unfair early stoppage.[citation needed]
He lost to KO Neil Grove at Cage Rage 22 on July 14th. This was a major setback for James and a continuation of his lack of success at Cage Rage. Neil Grove came in as a last minute substitute after the original opponent Wesley "Cabbage" Correira had to back out due to injury.
Elite XC
His first Elite XC fight was against Brett Rogers at EliteXC: Street Certified event on February 16, 2008. He was knocked out in the first round. With a vicious loss to Rogers and another loss by KO to Neil Grove in July of 2007, which ended in the 1st round as well. Thompson's most recent fight was a highly controversial loss to Kimbo Slice in EliteXC: Primetime at 0:38 in Round 3 via TKO. Slice threw a right hook that ruptured Thompson's cauliflower ear, Thompson was so angry with the early stoppage that he hit the ref in the face. Many feel that the fight should have been stopped during the 2nd round, since Thompson delivered around 20-22 unanswered punches and elbows. Thompson recently stated his feelings about that in an interview, saying: "Yeah. Really, when it’s all said and done, basically if a fighter is unable to answer or improve his position, then a fight gets stopped. I just feel — and this is a gut instinct — but that if I was on the bottom and the roles were reversed, then the fight would have been stopped after 10, 11. That’s just the way I feel, maybe I am wrong. I don’t know, I just get that feeling."
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