In Search Of: James Thompson
A Giant Hairy Creature...part Ape, part Man. Americans call him “The Colossus,” Japanese refer to the beast as “Megapunk.”
Most believe he is as gentle as he is both powerful and mysterious.
He has been seen many times, in the shrouded cages and distant rings. Rarely during the day—he is almost always seen at night. His presence made known throughout the crowd by the screams of a woman. Jaaaaaaaaameesss Thompsonnnnnnnnnn! Followed by his own bellow and the slamming of his palms as he prepares for battle.
Encounters with James have never been peaceful.
In 2009, some men were working a small cage somewhere in the western United States. What they saw has been recorded here, and may shock the faint of heart.
James ‘The Colossus” Thompson is a mountain of a man. Standing nearly 6’6” and weighing upwards of 280lbs, few forget any encounter with the giant. Following his fight with “Big” Jim York, another beast of equal magnitude, James disappeared.
Today we go “In Search Of: James “The Colossus” Thompson.
Our search begins with the location of his last known siting- Extreme Couture Gym.
I have made several attempts to communicate with Aimee Couture via email with no success. They refuse to offer any information as to the location or contact information for this giant. The cold response is a bad sign that he has been tossed aside by his former team and his last chance for success, lost at the merciless hands of Jim York.
Our team of investigator(s), have viewed every fight of Thompson’s over and over and have come to a conclusion—Thompson is in hiding and his life is in danger. That or no one cares about him anymore which is even worse.
When I think of Thompson I think of his destruction of Henry Miller which this investigator was able to view live from Japan at Bushido 8. Expecting great things from this man I followed his career. To my disappointment.
While our “In Search Of” Investigative team has failed to turn up any current info, or enjoy an interview with James, We have compiled every interview and quote Thompson ever made in public.
Our team does not plan to bore the reader with all of that information, but we will share certain tidbits that we believe are pertinent to our investigation.
First of all what caused his disappearance, what was the beginning of the end so to speak for James Thompson.
Our investigation leads us to conclude many things- some that may seem shocking or unbelievable. To our knowledge, everything said here is true.
Our trip begins in Saitama, Japan. Thompson shines as he demolishes the “Giant” Silva. This victory earns him a respected match up with one of the greatest fighters of all time, Kaz Fujita. He suffers a KO in this fight which while no shame—leads to two more losses vs. relative unknowns.
Witnessess say he failed to heal properly- did not give himself time to recover and employed under skilled coaches and trainers to run his camps. Financially things were falling apart for the fighter who seems to never run out of debts.
Thompson hoped to acquire momentum for his career by defeating Yoshida, Hidehiko. A respectable win. However, his momentum was interrupted by an utterly stupid referee that called a fight too soon resulting in an embarrassing loss to the combat sports joke known as Eric Esch.
James was able to recover from this loss- seemingly—by defeating Don Frye in an incredibly exciting match.
Unfortunately, that glory day in the hot sun would be James’ last as he suffered four consecutive highly questionable losses.
There is little doubt that Thompson signed with EliteXC with the understanding that he would lose his fights and help build the reputations of the fighters he faced. Up and commers for the new organization. A victim of his own inability to handle finances, he was in little position to do anything but accept the highly lucrative deal.
The obviousness of his “fall guy” status could be displayed no greater than it was when he fought Kimbo Slice. Kimbo tapped out in the second round but this was not called by the referee, who then declared the fight a TKO in favor of Kimbo while James was still standing with a clear win via decision in his pocket.
Fortunately for us all that organization is now defunct.
James made one last effort at a successful career when he joined the Xtreme Couture team. Unfortunately this did not help him as he was KO’d by Jim York. Having viewed the fight with York one can only say it was an honest contest and one which could have easily gone James’ way but didn’t. It cant be described any other way.
During his career James was quoted and interviewed many times, here are some of the more interesting tidbits:
“The following was a post made by Pride star:
James "The Colossus" Thompson on the CageWarriors.comforum following his disappointing loss to Eric "Butterbean" Esch at last weekend's Cage Rage 20: Born 2 Fight event.
"The decision in my fight against Butterbean was a joke.
The way I understand it, if your working on improving your position and not taking unnecessary punishment, your good. Add to that I when down due to a slip and not a punch, you have a joke of a decision.
How anyone who has seen it says otherwise is beyond me. The best is the people who haven't seen it giving their say, just f**ks me off. I felt the best I have ever felt for this fight and the fact I was deny the chance to work or build momentum after my Yoshida win is f**ked.
I think Grant (Waterman – Cage Rage’s Chief Referee) stopped the fight so early due to Cage Rage being more in the public eye, and cause he got so much shit for a late stoppage against Broughton (none from me ).
Refs do have a hard job and mistakes are made, there is no use crying over it and I hold nothing against Grant. I just want the video to come out so at least every one can see it for what it was.
Cheers James” *1
*1 “CageWarriors.com
“Q: How did you get involved with MMA?
A: I turned on the telly and watched one of the early UFC’s. The fights had me on the edge of my seat because they were non stop action. The range of techniques used kept my attention. I knew from that point on that I wanted to be a Cage fighter.”
“Q: Who's been the hardest opponent you've faced?
A: Without a doubt a Russian fighter called Alexander Emilanenko. He is one of the top Pride fighters whose brother is also the Pride heavyweight champion. As mentioned earlier I didn’t have a professional team to train with and so my training wasn’t what it should be.
Another factor was the sheer spectacle of it all, I had never fought in such an arena before. To say I was overwhelmed would be an understatement; I think the whole thing just got to me. Just to give you some idea of what it is like, imagine if you will Wembley stadium packed full of people.
A boxing ring is placed in the middle of the field and then you are asked to fight in front of the packed stadium. You can probably guess that for a fella who had fought in front of 2000 people max, the pressure was overwhelming.”
“Q: Who would you most like to face in a fight?
A: A fighter called Mark Coleman, he was the first MMA fighter I ever saw in action. I was particularly impressed by his aggressive style of fighting (he was the UFC champion at the time) I was due to fight him in Korea, but the show got cancelled the day before the show.
This was because some of the fighters had forgotten to apply for a working visa and had mistakenly come as tourists. As a result the show was pulled. I felt I could beat Mark at the time so I guess it’s sort of unfinished business.
That said on a personal level Mark and I get on really well, so there is no malicious intent, it’s just part of the game.”
*2 “site
There will be a part two to this article as we continue to search for a live interview with Thompson. Either way we will conclude the second half with current interviews and oppinions expressed by james regarding everything from his stint in EliteXC to his upcoming bout with Hasim Rahman.
The breaking story was reported in February by Mark Pickering and dream fighters.com
Be sure to catch the rest as we go “In Search Of: James “The Colossus” Thompson
-Marco Yanitelli, “The Italian Scallion
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