Record 14 – 11 – 0 (1 no contest)
Wins:
9 (T)KOs ( 64.29 %)
4 Submissions ( 28.57 %)
1 Decisions ( 7.14 %)
Losses:
9 (T)KOs ( 81.82 %)
2 Submissions ( 18.18 %)

Weight 272lbs (123kg), City: London, Gym: London ShootFighters

James “The Collosus” Thompson is one of the more experienced fighters in the tournament and is arguably the biggest worldwide name appearing in the event. He boasts a 26 fight career record spanning Cage Rage, Elite XC and Pride amongst others. The win/loss ratio is not as impressive as some but in his first 14 fights he lost only twice: to fellow ZT tournament fighter Tengiz Tedoradze and also to the “little” Emelianenko, Aleksander.

After beginning his career in MMA on one of the early UK MMA shows “Ultimate Combat” with great success, he was then picked up by Pride. Despite losing his debut to Emelianenkojunior, the Japanese audience immediately took to him and particularly enjoyed his “Gong and Rush” start to fights, which eventually became expected of him. He didn’t fight exclusively on Pride and took fights on other shows, most notably Cage Rage. His Pride run made him a star and he scored big KO wins against Miller, Lungu, Giant Silva and Yoshida as well as one of the fighters who inspired him to take up MMA – Don Frye. In Elite-XC he had less success and was robbed of a win against Kimbo Slice by some poor refereeing.

He has been known to be a bit “chinny” in the past…. with almost half his KO losses coming inside the first minute of the fight. Equally though, if he hits you with those clubbing punches you are going to know about it and he possesses big power. He has moved gyms a few times, leaving his home of Trojan Free Fighters after his win-streak ended, to seek out better training partners closer to his weight at Extreme Couture. He now trains out of London Shootfighters.

He will be taking this tournament very seriously – as it represents a great chance for him to re-launch his career and end a 5 fight losing-streak. With prior losses to 2 of the other competitors in the tournament (Broughton and Tedoradze) the chance to avenge these will also be a great source of motivation for the megapunk!

Although he is not tipped as a favourite for this tournament, he is certainly one to watch and I’m picking him as a dark horse. The draw for the first round will be significant, if he can avoid the favourites and get a good win to boost his confidence he could go all the way.

(couldn’t resist including this Random JT pic. Best cauliflower ear EVER! ):