Stephen Thompson puts down his gloves after one last spinning-kick knockout

Thompson retired after stopping Radtke at UFC 334 at Madison Square Garden in New York on November 14, 2026. Their bout closed the preliminary card, with MMA Fighting reporting the finish at 2:54 of the third round. It ended Thompson’s three-fight losing streak and his 16-year MMA career in the same moment.⁠2⁠3⁠6

There was something fitting about the method. Thompson entered the UFC with a head-kick knockout in 2012 and left it with another kick that stopped his opponent. Between those finishes were two championship challenges, victories over some of the welterweight division’s best fighters and a striking style that remained dangerous even as the losses accumulated.⁠1

Radtke did not give Thompson an easy route to that final highlight. He closed the distance immediately, took him down inside the opening minute and worked from top position while Thompson tried to stand. Getting back to his feet solved only part of the problem: Radtke kept him tied up in a clinch against the cage.⁠2

The fight began to change when Thompson broke free. He established his jab, found distance and made Radtke come through counterstrikes rather than simply crowding him against the fence. That recovery matters to the story of the finish. This was not an untouched veteran producing one isolated flash of brilliance; Thompson first had to escape the kind of close-range fight his opponent wanted.⁠2

Radtke pursued another takedown in the second round. The accounts differ on whether he completed it: Bloody Elbow’s November 14 report describes a successful takedown followed by a quicker Thompson escape, while MMA Fighting’s November 15 account says Thompson resisted effectively. Both describe Thompson taking greater control of the striking exchanges as the round progressed, mixing straight punches with kicks and leaving Radtke struggling to answer before the bell.⁠1⁠2

In the third, Thompson landed a heel kick to the face and kept combining punches and kicks against a slowing opponent. Radtke sought relief in the clinch, but the decisive spinning strike eventually sent him down. The spectacular ending followed a sustained shift in control, not a reversal from nowhere.⁠1⁠2

Even the winning technique has more than one description. Bloody Elbow called it a spinning wheel kick; MMA Fighting used the same term in its headline but called it a spinning back kick in the article. The UFC’s own final-fight video title says spinning wheel kick. Thompson called it a “spin back kick” afterward. Those descriptions do not fully agree, but they agree on the central result: a spinning-kick stoppage in his final fight. The available official results text does not independently settle the reported time or the formal KO-versus-TKO classification.⁠1⁠2⁠4⁠5

The confidence in his post-fight remarks soon gave way to something more vulnerable. “I told myself I wasn’t going to cry. I just want to say I love you,” Thompson said. Bloody Elbow reported that Joe Rogan was in tears during the final interview. Then Thompson left his gloves behind.⁠1⁠2

Thompson moved into MMA in 2010 after an unbeaten kickboxing run, reported by Bloody Elbow as 57-0, without a professional-versus-amateur breakdown. He won his first five MMA fights before joining the UFC. His promotional debut at UFC 143 in February 2012 ended with a first-round head-kick knockout of Dan Stittgen.⁠1

A unanimous-decision loss to Matt Brown followed, then seven consecutive victories carried Thompson into championship contention. Robert Whittaker, Johny Hendricks and Rory MacDonald were among the opponents he beat during that ascent. His first title fight against Tyron Woodley, at UFC 205 in 2016, ended in a majority draw. Woodley won their UFC 209 rematch in 2017 by majority decision. Thompson never held the UFC’s 170-pound title and received no further championship opportunity.⁠1⁠3

That is a limit on his record, not a reason to flatten it. Later wins over Jorge Masvidal, Vicente Luque, Geoff Neal and Kevin Holland extended his relevance well beyond the Woodley fights. His career was more substantial than a pair of unsuccessful title challenges, even if those challenges marked its competitive peak.⁠1

The final stretch was harder. Defeats to Shavkat Rakhmonov, Joaquin Buckley and Gabriel Bonfim left him entering the Radtke bout at 17-9-1. The farewell win changed that to 18-9-1 overall. His UFC-only record, 13-9-1 across 23 appearances, covers a different span: the first five victories came before he joined the promotion.⁠1⁠3⁠7

The gloves-down gesture completed a plan rather than announcing a sudden retirement. Thompson’s intention to stop was public before fight night, and the UFC’s November 11 feature already presented the Radtke bout as his final competition. Heavy also reported a confirmation in the preceding week; that should not be mistaken for the first time he discussed leaving.⁠1⁠3⁠11

There was a life beyond the result pulling him toward that decision. Heavy reported that Thompson had recently welcomed a baby daughter and wanted time with his young family rather than more years absorbing damage in the cage. His reference to “almost 15 years” with the UFC described his promotional tenure, within the longer MMA career that began in 2010.⁠2⁠3

A final knockout does not erase the defeats, supply the missing championship or make another fight necessary. It gave Thompson one last demonstration of what he could do. Putting down his gloves was the separate, deliberate act that made it a farewell.