Stephen Thompson has fought the best and trained with the best, but nobody impressed him more than Georges St-Pierre.
“Wonderboy” was a staple of of the UFC legend’s training camps starting in 2008 and he helped prepare St-Pierre for wins over the likes of B.J. Penn, Carlos Condit, Nick Diaz, and more elite welterweights of the era. At the same time, St-Pierre and his Tristar Gym team in Montreal aided Thompson in his transition from kickboxing to MMA.
What struck Thompson the most about St-Pierre is not how he dominated the competition, but how he allowed himself to struggle when it came to improving his skills between fights.
“His mindset kind of helped me,” Thompson said on the Overdogs Podcast. “Even MMA, there’s a lot of ego when it comes to MMA. MMA is a very selfish sport to begin with, but with ‘GSP,’ he would train with people that would just smash him. If it was striking, he wants somebody that was better than him at striking. If it was jiu-jitsu, he’s out there training with Roger Gracie, he was like two weight classes above him and just super skillful, but [St-Pierre] would put himself in situations or under guys that could just smash him and he would get better training with those guys, if it was striking, if it was wrestling.
“I saw him and Rashad Evans go at it at Tristar one time, it was sick. I saw him and Roger Gracie go at it and he would just get submitted all the time. So he would always come in the gym with an empty cup. Every day. Doesn’t matter even though he was champion, multiple-time champion, he would still come in and just learn from not just the coaches but from everybody, which was like, ‘That’s what I’ve got to do.’”
Thompson never captured the UFC welterweight title as St-Pierre did on two occasions, but he made it to No. 1 contender status and twice fought Tyron Woodley for the belt. The 42-year-old currently owns a 17-8-1 pro MMA record, with several notable wins, including Robert Whittaker, Rory MacDonald, Jorge Masvidal, Geoff Neal, and Vicente Luque.
Given his reputation as the UFC’s unofficial “NMF” (Nicest Mother F*cker) champion, it’s no surprise that Thompson was eager to follow St-Pierre’s lead when it came to giving back to his training partners.
“I should be in the gym, these guys helped me get ready, I need to be in the gym helping them get ready,” Thompson said. “Because even though he would have a fight and he just got through training camp, if he had guys that had fights coming up, he was there in the gym, helping them get ready. I’m like, ‘Bro, that’s cool.’”
Thompson’s relationship with St-Pierre and the Tristar team dates back to around 2008, when Thompson caught their eye during a kickboxing competition. His karate and kickboxing background made him an ideal training partner for St-Pierre as he looked to shore up his striking skills and prepare for a variety of standup styles.
The working relationship became so productive, Thompson credits St-Pierre for motivating him to make the full-time jump to MMA.
“He was getting ready to fight Jon Fitch, I think B.J. Penn, Thiago Alves, who at the time was a monster striker, Carlos Condit,” Thompson said. “So I’m like, ‘Dude, are you kidding me? I would love to go out there.’ I’m, like, early 20s, I would love to come out and just be a part. At the time, I had put my jiu-jitsu and wrestling on the backburner, because kickboxing was more popular. Worldwide, it was more popular than MMA was, so they ended up bringing me out and I think I was out there for two or three weeks and they set me up, I didn’t have to pay for anything. I didn’t even ask for it, they didn’t have to pay for nothing.
“I went out there, I trained with them, I sparred with them, and every time I kept going out, every punch I threw, every punch that I threw, I was getting taken down, left and right. I’m like, ‘I’m a terrible sparring partner for this guy.’ So I started doing more jiu-jitsu, more wrestling, started learning more MMA just to be a better sparring partner for GSP. He ended up bringing me out for, like, every one of his camps up until he retired pretty much. … We became good friends. He was my inspiration to switch from kickboxing to MMA.”
