Stephen Thompson Believes Hometown Bias Lead To UFC Fight Night Liverpool Loss
Stephen Thompson suffered a unanimous decision loss to Darren Till in the main event of UFC Fight Night Liverpool.
The event took place in Till’s hometown of Liverpool, England and Thompson believes that there was a hometown bias in the judges minds, which played a factor in the scorecards.
“I know close fights are very hard in the moment,” Thompson said on The MMA Hour. “But there seems to be a lot of that happening recently. But I think [I would have won if the fight was not in Liverpool]. I really do. I think so. Darren is definitely a tough guy, man. He’s a very confident person. Definitely built for the fight game. And yeah, I think I would win that fight.”
Till was fighting in front of his hometown for the first time under the UFC banner, but has fought many times in Liverpool before coming to the promotion.
Outside of potential judging bias, another factor that affected the fight in Thompson’s mind was the crowd reaction during the five round encounter.
“I’d like to think of the judges as being professional and not thinking that and them focusing on the fight and not what the fans are doing,” Thompson said. “I literally didn’t hear a damn thing out there. I didn’t hear the crowd. People were saying that every time a punch would whiff by you — not even make contact — the crowd was going crazy. I don’t know. That could be a possibility, yeah.”
Potential hometown bias will not play a factor in Tills next fight because UFC President Dana White said the Liverpool native will fight next in Las Vegas.
