Nick Thompson

"This fight reminds me of an adventure Derrick Noble and I had. Derrick and I had snuck out of our houses and witnessed an Indian murder a local doctor. A person other than the Indian was mistakenly arrested and charged for the murder. Derrick and I made a vow of secrecy that we would not reveal that said person was not the murderer because we did not want to get into trouble for sneaking out of the house. At the falsely accused’s trial, however, the defendant’s attorney called me to the stand, and, despite our vow, I felt compelled to tell the truth about what I had seen. Upon hearing my testimony, in which I accused him of the murder, the Indian jumped out of a window and fled. Sometime later, Derrick snuck into an abandoned house that we thought was haunted, only to find the Indian hiding inside with a large amount of money. While we were unable to take the money that night, Derrick began trailing the Indian to determine where he was hiding it and to find an opportunity to take it. One night, Derrick overheard the Indian discussing his plan to mutilate a local widow. Derrick ran and told someone who, with his sons, went after Indian and scared him off with gunshots. Simultaneously, I had accompanied other local children on a picnic to a cave. Me and my girlfriend became lost, and before we were finally able to find our way out, we ran into the Indian who was hiding in the cave. Later, Derrick and I entered the cave from the alternate entrance that I found and retrieved the Indian’s loot. Yes, sir, that sure was an adventure and, in a lot of ways, reminds me of this fight. Tito wins by unanimous decision. I am a Tito fan. When I first made it to the UFC and met him, he was extra nice." - Nick on the Evans-Ortiz rematch.
Nick recently retired.
"This fight between B.J. and Fitch reminds me of something that happened to Derrick Noble many years ago. Derrick, a former member of an elite United States Army Special Forces, was walking into town minding his own business, when the overzealous sheriff drove him out of town because the sheriff disliked drifters. Noble stood his ground and walked right back in to town. After being arrested, the sheriff’s deputies harassed Noble. Then Noble snapped. Noble fought his way out of the jail and headed into the mountains. The police followed, but Noble used his combat experience, setting booby traps and maiming his pursuers. At this point, I flew in to meet with the sheriff. I advised him that it would be better to let Noble go, but the sheriff persisted. Continuing to be attacked by the sheriff’s men, Noble headed back in to the town and laid waste to the area. He then entered the police station and cornered the sheriff. He was about ready to kill him when I entered the station and talked him down." - Nick on the Pros Pick for BJ vs. Fitch.
"As I do every summer, I left a graduate-level algebraic graph theory math problem on the board as a challenged posed to my students. I had hoped one of them could solve it by the end of the semester. To my amazement, it was anonymously solved within the first week. In its place, I posted a much more difficult problem, one that took me and my colleagues two years to prove. Then I see this janitor writing over my problem and chase him away only to realize, upon closer inspection of the janitor’s writing, that the janitor had solved this difficult proof. I finally tracked down the janitor and found out his name was Derrick Noble. By the time I found out who he was, he was in a bit of a jam. He was on trial for attacking a police officer. Because of Derrick’s unparalleled promise, I spoke to the judge on Derrick’s behalf. The judge offered him prison or to be released to my supervision to study mathematics and see a therapist. Derrick chose the latter. Derrick treated the first five therapists with utter contempt. In desperation, I finally called on Sean, my old roommate, now an estranged old friend, who is a therapist and happens to think Carwin will win, just like Noble. My fields medal leads me to believe Lesnar will be the champ, but Derrick and Sean both have more natural talent than me, of which I am jealous, and they think Carwin."
"After finally garnering an invitation to one of Noble’s garish Saturday night parties held in his gothic mansion, Noble and I discussed his love of Daisy and how his extravagant lifestyle is simply a ploy to attract his old flame and we also discussed the fight between Franklin and Liddell. And I think Noble put it best when he said, “Well, old sport, I think Liddell may catch lightning in a bottle one more time.”" - Nick on Chuck-Rich.
"Derrick Noble says Rampage. Derrick knows his fights. But then you have to figure in that while we were at Shine, I put my pad Thai in his chair when he wasn’t looking and he sat in it. He is still mad about this and he may be telling me it’s Rampage when he really thinks Rashad. But then you have to figure in that Noble knows that I know that he is mad, so he would tell me Rampage, knowing that I will know that he is lying and will pick Rashad and it actually is Rampage who will win. Rampage via TKO." - Nick on the Rampage-Rashad fight.
"Machida defeats opponents who are overly aggressive, and Shogun is all aggression. That being said, I am always wrong on these things, so bet the farm on Shogun." -Nick Thompson on UFC 104 Pro's pick
"Derrick Noble and I discussed this fight over one of our nightly strolls. Noble said he really likes how Gomi can just give you a pounding." - Nick on the Florian-Gomi fight.
"Derrick Noble and I discussed this in the bath. Derrick thinks Mir. Derrick knows his fighting." - Nick on the Mir-Carwin fight.
"After some standup exchange that saw the Ohioan getting the better of the action, Couture landed a crisp left to the body that stunned Coleman. After recovering, Coleman scored a big punch that dropped Couture and he wasted no time in finishing with some shots on the ground, forcing the ref to stop the match at 2:54 of round one." - Nick on the Couture-Coleman fight.
"Derrick Noble and I discussed this over the Valentine’s dinner we were eating with one another. Derrick says he wants to be smothered into Cain’s sweat-glistened chest, and there is no way Nog can handle Cain’s manliness. How can I argue with that?" - Nick on the Cain-Nogueira fight.