Stephen Thompson (photo via UFC)

By FCF Staff

Stephen Thompson won’t be fighting welterweight champ Robbie Lawler next like he wanted, in fact, he’ll be taking on his friend.

Following Thompson’s impressive, first round stoppage win over Johny Hendricks in February, he campaigned for a fight with Lawler. The UFC, however, booked “Wonderboy” to fight Rory MacDonald at UFC FN 89 on June 18th.

MacDonald (18-3) trains out of the renowned Tristar gym in Montreal, where Thompson (12-1) has spent time training before. Thus, this is why he recently told UFC.com the following:

“It’s been a few years (since I last trained up there), but we’ve crossed paths many times – hung out, chatted. To me, it’s kind of like fighting a brother and me, I’ve got two brothers and we fight all the time.

“We both know it’s business and we’ll be friends before and after the fight; now we just get to punch each other in the face,” Thompson added with a laugh.

MacDonald will be fighting for the first time since last July, when he was stopped by Lawler. The Canadian is currently ranked #1 at 170, and the American Thompson is #2.