6. Stephen Thompson
While previous entry Lyoto Machida might have popularized a karate-inspired striking style in MMA, Thompson took it to a new level. Not only did he use a bladed stance, but unlike Machida, he held his hands all the way down at his waist. This was a highly risky approach, compromising his defense, but Thompson had the superb footwork, movement and instincts to pull it off, and having his hands so low made his punches unpredictable and especially difficult to dodge. Despite the karate background, Thompson has great balance between his attacking limbs. His kicks are amazing, possessing perfect technique and flexibility and tremendous speed and power. His setups for head kicks are especially great and have hit paydirt many times. However, I'm even more impressed by his hands, which are a class or two better than Machida's were. They are fast and incredibly sudden with considerable power and deadly accuracy. He can also throw them in slick combinations, a rarity among many karate stylists, who tend to be one-shot snipers. Even now at 40 years old, Thompson has yet to be soundly beaten in the striking in any of his fights. He has lost through grappling. Darren Till and Tyron Woodley fought him on even terms in the stand-up in bouts that could have gone either way, and Anthony Pettis knocked him out with a fluke Superman punch in a fight in which he was being dominated, Thompson's only knockout loss. However, no one has consistently outstruck him for an entire fight.
Among Thompson's successes, he has a stellar first-round knockout of a young Robert Whittaker, another fighter who could have easily made this top 10 list, a gorgeous spinning hook kick knockout of Jake Ellenberger, a first-round demolition of Johnny Hendricks and a clear decision over Rory MacDonald before challenging Woodley for the UFC welterweight championship, which resulted in a draw and then majority decision that went against him. Afterwards, Thompson was far from done, delivering vicious beatdowns to Jorge Masvidal, Vicente Luque, Geoff Neal, and most recently, Kevin Holland. The karate style in MMA may have achieved its highest level yet thanks to “Wonderboy.”
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