Stephen Thompson is walking away. The 43-year-old welterweight confirmed to James Lynch of Ozoon on Thursday that his Nov. 14 bout with Charles Radtke at UFC 334 will be the final fight of his MMA career. Lynch broke it on X, writing that Thompson wants to step away since becoming a dad to a baby girl. Thompson’s own version was simple: “It’s my last one. What better place to have it than Madison Square Garden, New York City?”
What stands out is the reason he gave. Fighters usually retire because the body quits on them, or the losses pile up until the matchmakers stop calling. Thompson says neither of those made the decision.
“My body feels good, I feel great. I can keep going. But I have a baby girl. ‘Wonderdad’ now. That definitely changes your mindset a little bit,” he told Ozoon.
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The Timing Was Already Built In
This one didn’t come out of nowhere. Back in August, Thompson said his next fight would close out his UFC contract and that he was aiming for it to be his last. He held off on making it official because the UFC hadn’t named an opponent yet. Once Radtke was booked, he put the stamp on it. His daughter was born in September, and the math got easy.
He also shut the door on shopping himself elsewhere. Thompson ruled out a move to the PFL or any other MMA promotion, and while he’s open to lower-stakes stuff like Real American Freestyle or Karate Combat, he said nothing is in the works. He mentioned watching Michael Chandler and Holly Holm compete in freestyle wrestling and finding it inspiring, which is a very Wonderboy thing to take away from a trip to London.
What Made the Style Work, and What Stopped Working
Thompson is a seventh-degree black belt in Tetsushin-ryu Kempo who came over from kickboxing in 2010, went 5-0, and got the UFC call. He announced himself in his debut by knocking out Dan Stittgen with a first-round head kick. That kick is the whole style in one moment. Thompson fought from a long, bladed karate stance, lived at the end of his opponent’s range, and punished people for stepping in on the wrong beat.
At his peak it carried him through a seven-fight win streak and wins over Robert Whittaker, Rory MacDonald, Johny Hendricks, Jorge Masvidal and Vicente Luque. He’s fifth in welterweight history with 1,293 significant strikes landed and fourth in the division with eight fight night bonuses, per the UFC record book. That’s a lot of output for a guy whose reputation was built on patience.
The two Woodley fights are where his legacy gets complicated, and where I get a little grumpy about the judging. UFC 205 in November 2016, the first UFC event ever held in New York, ended in a majority draw and won Fight of the Night. The rematch at UFC 209 the following March went to Woodley by majority decision. Two title fights, two majority results, zero belts. Thompson never got a third crack.
The back half has been rough. Since the Woodley rematch he’s 4-7, and his last win came against Kevin Holland in 2022. Then came a submission loss to Shavkat Rakhmonov at UFC 296 in December 2023, a finish loss to Joaquin Buckley, and a split decision to Gabriel Bonfim in Nashville in July 2025 that plenty of fans thought he won. He fell out of the official rankings that same month.
Jesse Holland at MMA Mania wrote that the division evolved and Thompson didn’t. My read is that it’s half right. The Rakhmonov loss came by submission, which is exactly where a karate-first fighter is most exposed once the range collapses. But the Bonfim result tells you the striking still competes at a high level when the fight stays where Thompson wants it. The decline looks to me less like his tools rotting and more like the welterweight top 15 filling up with people who refuse to let him pick the distance.
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How Radtke Fits In
Radtke joined the UFC in 2023 and is 5-2 in the promotion, winning his last two. He’s the hungrier fighter on paper and the one with something to build. The books have Thompson as a -140 favorite with Radtke at +120, which reads as a coin flip with a slight lean toward the name.
My read on the matchup comes down to one question: who controls where the fight takes place? If Thompson gets to work from his stance at the edge of range for 15 minutes, his footwork and timing have already beaten better strikers than anyone on Radtke’s résumé. If Radtke can close the gap, crowd him on the fence or turn it into a grind, then the recent losses are the blueprint and the odds are probably too generous to the 43-year-old.
The other thing I’m watching is the setting. Thompson called New York his home away from home after spending a lot of time on Long Island. Fighters in farewell bouts can come out flat or come out loose. Thompson has always fought loose. He’ll be in the featured prelim slot, on a card headlined by Ciryl Gane vs. Josh Hokit for the heavyweight title, with Kayla Harrison vs. Amanda Nunes in the co-main.
What It Means for 170
In terms of rankings, not much. Thompson is unranked, so a win or loss won’t shuffle the top of the division. For Radtke, though, this is the most valuable name he can put on his record. Beating the guy who beat Whittaker, Masvidal and MacDonald gets you booked against ranked opponents, even if the version of Thompson you beat is 43 and the oldest fighter on the roster.
For the division as a whole, it loses its last true traditional martial artist at the elite level. Dana White called him “one of the nicest human beings on the planet” in 2025, and his reputation for sportsmanship goes back years. I’ll miss the stance more than the stats, honestly. Nobody else at welterweight made opponents look that confused about where to stand.
One more detail I like: Kevin Holland, the last man Thompson beat, fights Uros Medic on the same card. Thompson turns 44 in February. Before that, he gets one more night at the Garden on Nov. 14, eight years after he first fought for a belt in that building.
