Stephen Thompson is one of the most experienced fighters in the UFC welterweight division, with 20 appearances to his credit, including two close misses for the title.

On the undercard of Saturday’s UFC 307 card in Salt Lake City, the 41-year-old karate specialist will step into the Octagon for the 21st time opposite rising contender Joaquin Buckley.

The fight started coming together in Las Vegas in June, amid the excitement of the UFC’s annual International Fight Week celebration.

“During International Fight Week, [Buckley] was on me like ‘Bro let’s make this fight happen, let’s do it,’” Thompson told B/R ahead of their UFC 307 contest. “It made sense for me, so we were like ‘Let’s make it happen.’”

For Thompson, the fight will be an opportunity to bounce back from a tough submission loss to top contender Shavkat Rakhmonov last December.

The 41-year-old is not expecting the win to come easily, acknowledging that Buckley, a former middleweight, is “crushing it” at 170 pounds. But the two-time title challenger has studied his opponent thoroughly and believes he is well-positioned for a victory—and a bright future beyond that.

Thompson is one of the most affable figures in MMA, a nice guy in a sport marked by inflated egos and cheap trash talk. He has never hesitated to acknowledge his opponent’s skills, and Buckley is no exception.

“He’s a great dance partner,” he said. “He’s going to come in and he’s going to fight you. He’s not the type of guy who’s going to win by just laying on you. He wants to make it an exciting fight. That’s just who he is.

“With how he fights and how I fight, I think it’s going to be a barn-burner.”

Buckley is best known for a viral 2020 knockout of Impa Kasanganay at middleweight. He was hot and cold in the division after that, but he has rattled off four straight wins since dropping to welterweight, including triumphs against Vicente Luque and Nursulton Ruziboev.

Thompson spotted many things he’ll need to look out for in his opponent’s recent performances.

“He’s very explosive,” he said. “He’s a big welterweight. He uses a lot of his strength. He’s not afraid to take you down. He’s not the type of guy to wrestle wrestle, but he’ll get you down, he’ll drive you from one end of the cage to the other.

“He’s not afraid to think outside the outside the box either—like when you saw him knock that one dude [Kasanganay] out. He’s not notorious for those kinds of moves, but it keeps you thinking what else can this dude pull off if he’s doing that to 185ers?

“It’s a fun fight for me because it’s a chess match. What is he going to bring to the table this time, against me? I’m definitely going to have to adapt.”

Thompson has also noticed several vulnerabilities in Buckley’s game, though he wouldn’t reveal too much ahead of the fight.

“He’s going to come out there swinging, hands high, which lets me know the body’s going to be open, so I’m trying to hit every part of his body,” he said. “Legs, body and head. Without going to into too much detail, that’s the game plan.”

Time will tell if Thompson’s UFC 307 game plan will work, but the veteran is confident he has enough tricks up his sleeve to win under any circumstances.

“I never go out there looking for the knockout,” he said. “I’m prepared for the hardest fight known to mankind. Mentally, I’m prepared for that. If the knockout happens, it happens; if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. But I always visualize my hand being raised at the end.”

A win over Buckley isn’t going to put Thompson back into title contention. Not only is his submission loss to Rakhmonov still wholly visible in the rear-view mirror, but there is also a growing procession of top welterweights waiting for a crack at champion Belal Muhammad at the moment.

That being said, a win over Buckley will give the Simpsonville, South Carolina native a firm push in the right direction. After all, he is still ranked No. 9 in the welterweight division, thanks in large part to his thrilling 2022 stoppage of Kevin Holland.

If he beats Buckley, there will be some very interesting possibilities for his next fight.

As a matter of fact, he’s got some ideas of his own, including a scrap with unbeaten Irish contender Ian Machado Garry, who is currently ranked No. 7.

“With a good win over Buckley, we can continue to move up—and maybe get the Ian Garry fight,” Thompson said. “When he was coming up, and we were kind of right there [beside each other in the rankings], I think I was getting ready to fight Shavkat and he was calling me out. The timing just wasn’t there for us to fight each other. Now he’s ranked above me, and I still think that’s an exciting fight. I always thought that would be. That could be a possibility.”

Thompson is also interested in a fight with former champion Leon Edwards, who was dethroned by Muhammad at UFC 305 this summer.

“You have so many guys who are up and coming, and there’s so many guys ranked above me that I’d love to fight—even Leon Edwards, who I was trying to get for a very long time,” he said. “Yes, he just lost the title to Belal Muhammad, but I still think that would be a great fight for the fans. Me and Leon Edwards would be a smokin’ fight.”

No matter who he fights over the next year or so, Thompson is still “100 per cent” confident he can become a UFC world champion, even in his 40s.

“The huge inspiration for me is Glover Teixeira. He was 42 when he got the light heavyweight title, and he’s still training everyday,” he said. “This February, I’ll be 42.

“To be able to see these guys like Teixeira, and their mindsets and the way they go about life, they don’t let age be their crutch. They don’t let it be an excuse.

“I feel great. I feel like I’m 25, 26 years old. Yeah, the body doesn’t heal up like it used to, but my hunger is still there. My drive to succeed is still there. I really do still think the opportunity [to win the title] is still there, I just need to go out there and achieve it.”

Many fans are going to have a hard time believing Thompson is capable of winning the UFC welterweight title at 42, and even less so as he gets older. He knows this.

However, his track record against all but the very best welterweights remains quite good—just look at his recent wins over Kevin Holland, Geoff Neal and Vicente Luque. He proved a lot of doubters wrong in those contests, and he doesn’t intend to break that habit.

“My goal is to go out there and to put on a show,” Thompson said. “My goal is to go out there and try to finish these guys in front of the world, in front of everybody, in front of the UFC, to let them know, yeah I’m 41 years old, getting ready to be 42, but I still got it. Just like I did with Geoff Neal. Just like I did with Vicente Luque.”

Much of Thompson’s recent success can be attributed to the fact that, even in his late 30s and early 40s, he has continued to improve.

He attributes his continued improvement to his never-ending quest to become the best martial artist possible.

“Even at 41 years old, my goal is to be the best martial artist I can be,” he said. “How good can I get as a martial artist? How much better can I get as a martial artist? How much can my wrestling and jiu-jitsu improve?”

His desire to be the best martial artist possible, in turn, is what keeps him motivated to train hard and give everything he has each time he steps into the Octagon.

“As a young fighter, the title was always the goal,” Thompson said. “When I thought about fighting, that was the goal. As I got older, there was a mindset switch that went off, and I think [I learned] from watching [fighters like] Georges St-Pierre, Anderson Silva, Lyoto Machida, because they’re lifelong martial arts as well.

“I always come into the gym with an empty cup. With the mindset of ‘within a week or two I want to have this submission down pat’ or ‘I want to be able to pass this dude’s guard like this’ or ‘I want to have three or four or five head kicks landing in this sparring session,’ with that kind of mindset, you’ll always grow.

“With that kind of mindset, the sky’s the limit, and then when you step into the cage, for me, that’s the ultimate test, to see my progression as a martial artist, win or lose.

“For example, my last loss against Shavkat Rakhmonov, the dude’s a beast, but there was a lot of things I was doing during that camp that I was really, really working hard on, and in the Octagon with him, I was successful. There was a lot of things I did right. Even though I lost it, I was still happy to see my progression.