Anthony

FiveOuncesOfPain.com contacted James Thompson via phone at his home in England on Wednesday and he granted us an exclusive interview. During the interview, Thompson was candid about his feelings regarding his main event fight vs. Kimbo Slice during the debut of “Saturday Night Fights” on CBS. Thompson held nothing back and addressed all the questions we had pertaining to his fight vs. Slice.

He revealed during the interview that he intends to file an appeal; that he knew what was going on after the fight had been stopped and had intentionally put his hands on referee Dan Miragliotta; how he feels about one judge who scored the second round in favor of Kimbo; and that in hindsight, he feels uneasy with the tight nit relationship between Gary and Jared Shaw and Slice.

Below is the transcript of our one-on-one with Thompson:

Sam Caplan: I wanted to first see if I could get a general update on your health. How are you doing right now?

James Thompson: Yeah, I’m fine. Right after the fight a lot of people wanted me to go to the hospital. Obviously, I needed to go to the hospital for my cauliflower ear but other than that my health was 100 percent. My cauliflower was busted. They put stitches in it and sliced and diced it a little bit but that’s all fine now and that’s kind of healing. So yeah, I am 100 percent.

Sam Caplan: I wanted to go through all the events that took place this past Saturday night. First, I wanted to start with the post-fight press conference. It was kind of strange because the press conference started with Gary Shaw announcing that you were in bad shape and that you had been rushed to the hospital. Then, a few minutes later you walked in and given the circumstances, you appeared relatively fine. Did you know he had made that announcement, and if so, how did you feel when you heard that he had said that?

James Thompson: No I didn’t hear that announcement. I didn’t know until afterwards. I wouldn’t have left the press conference. I mean, I did ask to go to the hospital, because like I had just said earlier, I needed to go for my ear. But I mean, I didn’t know Kimbo was coming out, otherwise I would have hung around to finish it off. No, but I didn’t know he had said that and I’m not quite sure why he said it. I mean, what can I say? A lot of people were telling me to go to the hospital; people from Elite. In the end, I just told them over and over again that I was going to the press conference (and that) I would like to have my say and that’s what I did. And maybe he didn’t care about that? It was just a bit of a shock.

Sam Caplan: During the press conference, you were asked by a reporter if you had thought that Kimbo tapped during the first round while you were applying a guillotine choke. At the time the question was asked, you said “no” and that you didn’t think Kimbo had tapped. Do you still feel that way?

James Thompson: See, that shocked me when the question was asked because I didn’t notice any kind of tap. And on the video, he actually kneed me in the groin. That’s why I turned to the referee. That’s why I think some people might have thought I said “Did he tap?” But no, I didn’t notice that but I did obviously notice when he kneed me in the groin. And so that’s what I tried to alert the attention of the referee to. I didn’t notice or feel any tap when he did it but when I look back it did look quite strange; it did look kind of look like a small tap. I’m not quite sure why he would have done that. It didn’t look like a thumbs up because once he did the thumbs up he did it again and it kind of looked like a small tap. I don’t know why he would do that, unless obviously he tapped, then I don’t know why he would do that.

Sam Caplan: During the second round, you had Kimbo on the ground and you had his arm trapped in a crucifix. By certain counts, there was anywhere between 20-22 unanswered strikes delivered on your part to Kimbo. Do you feel the fight should have been stopped?

James Thompson: Yeah. Really, when it’s all said and done, basically if a fighter is unable to answer or improve his position, then a fight gets stopped. I just feel — and this is a gut instinct — but that if I was on the bottom and the roles were reversed, then the fight would have been stopped after 10, 11. That’s just the way I feel, maybe I am wrong. I don’t know, I just get that feeling.

Not only that, but I had the referee telling me he was going to stand it up if I didn’t keep working hard. But at the time, I was elbowing. I thought, what are you talking about, I’ve got his arm pinned? I’ve got his other arm locked down and I’m elbowing him. I’m throwing elbows and you’re telling me you possibly might stand it up? You don’t know what to think when something like that’s going on.

But yeah, of course I thought the fight should have been stopped.

Sam Caplan: With the standup, and I can already guess the answer to the question but I wanted to get your thoughts on it anyway, did you agree with the standup?

James Thompson: That’s what I first thought but I didn’t want to get too distracted. But I just couldn’t believe he stood us up from side control. Even if I was just holding him in side control and not doing anything with it, I think in the video I had been in it for, about, 10 seconds? Maybe a little bit longer? I just threw a few hammerfists with my left hand out and I kind of locked it up with my other arm. But he stood it up and that was very quick. In my head, I kind of got a sinking feeling and I thought [inaudible] at this point.

Sam Caplan: I then wanted to go into the third round when the fight was stopped. I wanted to get your feelings about the outcome of the fight and whether it was a fair stoppage?

James Thompson: No. In my opinion, he had just seen me catch some heavy shots and I was rocked. But if you looked at the first and second round, I caught heavy shots in both of them and I had managed to reverse it. I managed to get a takedown. I was still on my feet. Like I said, it did rock me but I was going to go for a clinch there. I can’t tell you what would have happened after that. I say tell you 100 percent that I would have put Kimbo down, I mean, I don’t know. No one can tell. But remember, like you had said, I threw 20-some unanswered blows and the fight didn’t get stopped in the second round. In the third round, Kimbo hits me with a good four punches (and) I’m still on my feet and the referee comes in and stops it. I think as soon as Kimbo had the slight advantage, he got the nod. That’s how it feels and that’s how it looks to me.

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