Issue 035
March 2008
James Thompson is arguably the UK’s best-known heavyweight fighter. During his up-and-down four-year career ‘The Colossus’ has seen his share of success, destroying the likes of Don Frye and judo legend Hidehiko Yoshida in Japan, yet also stumbling to defeat against fighters such as Butterbean and Kazuyuki Fujita. James trains under Shawn Tompkins at Xtreme Couture and fights for EliteXC on February 16th.
Where are you now?
I’m in Las Vegas, Nevada right now, lying on my mate’s bed, in my mate’s house, I’m staying with them at the moment in Las Vegas, I’m staying in the kids room, surrounded by toys and piss-poor paraphernalia.
What do you remember from your first MMA fight?
I wanted to do it, just wanted to get in there, see if I could get in the cage and do it and not bottle out, because you never know until you put yourself through that experience. I can remember being very, very tired very quickly and how horrible it was. I wasn’t the most technical fighter, I was just a big guy swinging and doing the best I can, but at least I put myself forward and had a go.
Which fight would you say is the toughest fight you’ve ever had?
That’s a good question, because fights are tough for different reasons. I’d say the toughest fight was Fujita. I just felt like I gave absolutely everything; physically, there was nothing left. It’s probably one of the most frustrating ones, to go from winning it, to losing quite quickly, but that’s what happens when you’ve got 10 minute rounds and you’re over 20stone (280lbs)!
What was going through your mind when you were battering Don Frye, knocking him out and waking him up again?
“Just keep going”. I was getting tired at that point it had been quite a fast-paced fight. I just thought, “keep going, keep going, don’t stop”. That’s all that I thought. Really, I should have stepped back, but I thought it was very honest of Don to say that. He could have just said that he was tired, or that the punches didn’t have much effect, he could have said any number of things, but I really respect that he just came out and told it like it was.
Does any fight stick out in your mind as the most memorable one?
I fought Spain’s strongest man at Ultimate Combat once. I had all my family there, my brother had cancer at the time, leukaemia, and he came down, all my family came to watch. My trainer at the time, Kevin O’Hagan, he was fighting and also my friend was fighting, Wesley Murch, so there was 3 of us from Bristol. It was a sold out arena, we were all fighting and all of us won. Everything just went absolutely to plan, so that sticks out in my mind as a good memory.
What are your memories of your last fight against Neil Grove – and what have you taken away from it?
To be honest, it’s taught me to stop being so gung ho about taking fights. A lot of my losses have come as a result of a change of opponent at the last minute. I knew nothing about the guy – I really shouldn’t have taken the fight. Cage Rage were going to pay me half my money, but I said I wanted to fight anyway.
That was the first time I’ve ever been actually knocked out cold, like sparko’d, every other time I can honestly say, I’ve been knocked down or flash knocked down, or I’ve fallen victim to tiredness. Fujita landed a beautiful punch on me, but I was fully awake all the time, same with all my other fights, but that was ‘smack’ – and out cold.
What do you know about your next opponent, Brett Rogers?
He’s a big, strong guy; he’s got some half decent takedown defence and seems like a slugger. He doesn’t have the best technique, but he throws them. So far he’s done quite well, so he’s a legitimate opponent and definitely a threat. Coming from a bad knock out in my last fight, fighting someone who’s a knock out specialist (who’s also a big guy) doesn’t seem a good choice, but I decided that I wanted to throw myself in there. The best way to deal with a potential fear is to face it head on and that’s what I intend to do.
