Thompson vs Neal Fight Night Aftermath: Thompson stifles, Aldo Sustains, Pettis Absconds

The card was better than a fair share of PPV's I've seen with Thompson doing much less fleet of foot retreating, and punching some stamp on his punches before circling off and backing out. I expected some more high kicks over the course of 5 rounds, but forgoing them prob kept Neal from having any opportunity to put Thompson on his back and wear on him with ground and pound. Neal blamed a clash of heads for obscuring his vision but nothing I saw in the first 2 rounds suggested that he was going to land many if any clean power shots to hit the always mobile trap-setting Thompson. I've been exceedingly critical of Thompson in the past after fights like Woodley 1 & 2 and Masvidal, but he fought his kind of fight without being boring or gun shy this time around. I think he's aware those kinds of performances will get you persona non grata and certainly KO any shot of another title shot. Thompson will always be superbly hard to beat as he retreats behind his ability to throw danger and goad you into trying to bull him. He can beat the Geoff Neal's and Vicente Luque's of the welterweight division. 

The only guys above him in the rankings now are Masvidal (NO ONE WANTS TO SEE A REMATCH), Covington, Burns, and Usman. Usman is slated to face Burns but it's been cancelled twice, and I expect Usman to milk more time out of delaying if I'm being completely honest. He did the same thing with Covington belaboring negotiations, saying he needed surgery, then not, then needing it et cetera. I'd honestly like to see Thompson fight Edwards as that makes the most linear sense, but Edwards is slated to face surging number 15 stay busy and crush cans Khamzat. That leaves Thompson the ignoble choices beneath him such as Chiesa or Magny if he wishes to stay busy and relevant. His previous abysmal title fights may continue to haunt him in terms of booking, unless he takes on whoever loses the Burns/Usman fight. Burns really does strike me as someone who will fight anyone, Usman, does not. 

Pettis is now gone from the UFC. Wild, as I guess he's fought basically everyone there is to fight, and to continue fighting between 145, 155, and 170 against the lesser known, lower tier guys doesn't seem to interest him in the long term. The depth of his resume is so comically and absurdly deep that it is frankly mind blowing. Everyone from Nate Diaz to Cerrone to Jim Miller, to Benson Henderson to Poirier, Holloway, Oliveira, Alvarez, Chiesa, and Ferguson....He will be missed, but I guess he likes the idea of the PFL tournament, and after hopping through 3 different weight classes and catchweight bouts in his career, why not try to win a cool million for his efforts. 

Aldo showed why he still has the tools to punish most guys not named Holloway or Volkanovski or Petr Yan. He's another Pettis scenario where you can give him mid or lower level guys simply because he's fought basically everyone else. The gameplan to beat Aldo is seemingly known as guys like Holloway, Petr Yan, and Volkanovski have shown, but other than a handful of elite fighters, most guys will simply not be able to corner him, back him up, or force him to make many mistakes without getting battered across 3 rounds. I'd love to see him fight Rob Font (though I think this is a 50/50 for him) or Cody Garbrandt, but Garbrandt seems intent on still fighting for the 135 belt, so hopefully we see Aldo face Sandhagen or Font. I think Sandhagen has the type of pressure forward style that will not be good for Aldo, particularly across 5 rounds, but Sandhagen coming off of his 1st round submission by Aljamain may take a fight with Aldo to stay near the top ranking and show he deserves a title shot should Aljamain beat Yan. If Aljamain loses to Yan, it's actually better for Aldo as them fighting makes more sense than Aldo fighting Petr Yan so soon after losing to him.