Josh Thomson: ‘Bellator Has a Vision for Me’

Josh Thomson sounds like a man who has been reinvigorated by a new lease on life. The Ultimate Fighting Championship veteran and former Strikeforce champion has put down roots in Bellator MMA and has plans to take the lightweight division by storm.

Thomson made headlines when he opted to sign with Bellator instead of remaining with the UFC. The 37-year-old American Kickboxing Academy standout admits the presence of Bellator President Scott Coker was a key piece of the equation.

“Coker has been amazing, and it’s probably the easiest deal that I’ve ever been involved in,” Thomson told Sherdog.com. “The numbers are right there in front of you, and unlike some other organizations, Bellator is willing to negotiate with you a little bit. It makes a big difference when you have someone on the other side who is willing to listen to you.”

Thomson was quick to point out that he was not mistreated by the UFC. His departure -- which came on the heels of consecutive losses to Benson Henderson, Bobby Green and Tony Ferguson -- was a matter of preference.

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“With the UFC, it wasn’t a matter of how they treated me or other fighters,” Thomson said. “I wasn’t necessarily treated poorly, as some people think. With them, there just wasn’t any negotiating at all. Their price is what it is, and that’s it. If you can go somewhere else that has a better price, then you go for it, but it wasn’t how they treated me. With me and the UFC, I wanted to fight the biggest names. I wanted to fight guys who were ranked as highly as me, and the guys they kept offering me weren’t. I was getting guys who weren’t even ranked in the top 20.

“I think Ferguson was the highest-ranked guy they offered me [after the loss to Henderson],” he added. “When things like that happen, you realize they aren’t interested in promoting you at all or allowing you to fight the big names. At that point, it comes down to the numbers, and when the numbers aren’t right, you have to go where the money is and that’s what I did.”

Some might see Thomson’s claims as hypocritical when looking at his opposition in Bellator. He submitted Mike Bronzoulis with an arm-triangle choke in his promotional debut on Sept. 19 and will return to the cage against Pablo Villaseca in the Bellator 147 main event on Friday at the San Jose State University Event Center in San Jose, Calif. While he owns a 10-1 pro record, Villaseca remains an unknown commodity. One might wonder how Thomson reconciles his desire to face big-name competition with this latest assignment.

“The difference is that I see the big picture with this fight,” he said. “Bellator has a vision for me; there’s actually a plan. They told me that if I get past a guy like Pablo, I eventually will be fighting guys like Michael Chandler, like Will Brooks. Those types of fights weren’t offered by the UFC. It doesn’t make sense to stick around with a company that has no actual plans for you.

“The thing with Pablo is that, OK, maybe people don’t know who he is,” Thomson added. “That doesn’t mean that he isn’t any good. He’s got to start somewhere, and another thing is maybe the Bellator fans don’t know who I am, either. Or maybe they only watched the UFC a few times and since they didn’t promote me like I think they should have, then they wouldn’t know who I was anyway. They probably didn’t watch Strikeforce back in the day, so with that said, Bellator can’t just shove me right into a title fight because I’m still unknown. That wouldn’t make any sense. We are building me up and trying to build ratings.”

Thomson knows MMA history and understands it is littered with examples of unknown fighters coming out of nowhere to score major upsets. Villaseca has generated seven finishes among his 10 victories, four by submission and three more by knockout or technical knockout.

“He’s well-rounded and he has good standup,” Thomson said. “He’s got a good little head kick that I’ll need to check. He’s got good wrestling and he’s good on top. He’s tough all the way around. I think I’m better than him in every regard and I definitely have more experience, but he’s tough and anything can happen in a fight. I have to take him serious and not make any mistakes because I’m thinking title shot.”

Provided Thomson gets past his Chilean counterpart and particularly if he does so in spectacular fashion, his priority will be fighting for the Bellator lightweight title currently held by Brooks. After a trilogy with Gilbert Melendez and battles with fighters like Henderson, Ferguson, Nate Diaz and Tatsuya Kawajiri, the miles on Thomson’s body have begun to pile up. Injuries have taken their toll, too. How much longer he plans to pursue MMA at such a high level remains to be seen.

“It’s hard to say because I’ve been taking these things training camp by training camp,” Thomson said. “I’ve been doing this a long time, and every fighter will tell you that what wears you down is not the actual fight itself but all the training camps we put ourselves through. I take it one camp at a time, and this camp was great.”