Stephen "Wonderboy" Thompson out of UFC 154 Bout with Besam Yousef

The injury bug strikes again!

Stephen "Wonderboy" Thompson was set to make his return to the cage at UFC 154 against Besam Yousef on November 17th. Unfortunately, Thompson was forced to withdraw from the bout due to a knee injury. 

The news was broken by Ariel Helwani of MMAFighting.com early Friday morning. According to Helwani's report, Thompson suffered a torn meniscus in training and will undergo surgery that will put him on the sidelines for at least eight weeks.

"Wonderboy" took the UFC by storm when he scored a stunning head kick knockout at UFC 143 over Dan Stittgen. The kick earned him "Knockout of the Night" honors and a $65,000 bonus check. 

It also put him on the fast track, as fans couldn't wait to see him put his highly-touted striking skills on display again. 

The South Carolina native was booked against Matt Brown at UFC 145. Fans expected to see more fireworks. Instead, they saw Brown continually bloody the face of Thompson on his way to a Unanimous Decision victory. 

The loss definitely set Thompson back, but there was optimism that the Brown fight would be a learning experience and Thompson would show major improvements in his fight with Yousef. 

Yousef is now forced to wait and see if Joe Silva can find an opponent on short notice. If not, expect to see him fight in a future UFC bout.