Photo courtesy of Thompson's Instagram account
After freak injury, Taylor Thompson glad to be back in the cage at NEF 36
The start to Taylor Thompson’s career was going very well. She defeated her first two opponents within two rounds and earned the Cage Titans bantamweight title. She was set to defend that belt in a highly anticipated matchup against another talented prospect in Kylie O’Hearn in June. But the week of the fight, she broke her foot and had to pull out.
“I broke my foot, it must’ve been a few days before the scheduled fight in June. I was just doing my last couple minutes of light pad work and the edge of my foot caught on the edge of the mat and rolled under me and I ended up snapping my fifth metatarsal in two different places.”
“I mean it was just stepping through for a kick and it was just one of those perfect storms.”
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Thompson wasn’t sure if it was broken immediately but the next morning the doctor confirmed it. The injury prevented her from working or training. She got through her time on the sidelines by sitting down and using a punching bag, lifting weights while sitting, learning Spanish and of course Netflix.
When she was cleared to practice again, she had to keep reminding herself to keep it slow.
“I was to trying really hard to let myself get back into it slowly, I’m very much an all or nothing person.”
But she was able to do it and now she has a fight scheduled for November 17 at NEF 36 against Catie Denning who is also undefeated.
For this fight, Thompson went back to Albuquerque, NM to train at the famed JacksonWink gym. Her home team is BST Fitness and MMA and Worcester MMA but there are a lack of female training partners so she makes the journey to Albuquerque for her fight camps. She spent five weeks there and trained with the likes of Michelle Waterson and Jodie Esquibel.
Her opponent for this fight, Denning made her debut earlier this year and impressed by constantly throwing hard punches and earned some hype. Thompson is excited for the fight and is hoping for a first round finish.
“From watching her previous fight and doing research on her, the rumor that I’ve been catching is that she can throw some bombs, that she hits hard. I definitely am going to be respectful that she can throw a heavy right hand.”
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“I’m looking for a finish and hopefully it can be a first round finish whether it’s striking or on the ground, I’m not too picky.”
Before her injury, she was hoping to turn professional quickly, but Thompson will let her performance in this fight dictate her decision.
“I think it all depends on how this fight goes. Not necessarily a win or lose situation but more of experience I gain from this fight. If it ends up being a fast fight, I might want one or two more amateur fights just to get a little bit more time in the cage and put myself in more of a variety of situations. I think it comes down to if I could get the matchups and where and when. I don’t want to spend too much time waiting around trying to get more experience if I could just go pro and get experience there.”
