MMA fighter Josh Thompson found purpose on way to the cage

He’s known as “The Punk.” And truth is Josh Thomson doesn’t much care for the nickname.

“I hate it,” he said. “Everybody would like a good name.”

Thomson wanted something classy, like “The Golden Boy.” But Oscar De La Hoya got there first, and nothing else seemed to fit.

“So, I’m stuck with ‘The Punk.’ ”

Thomson takes that billing into his long-delayed rematch with Gilbert Melendez on the Strikeforce mixed-martial arts card Saturday at HP Pavilion. The lightweight title fight was postponed twice this year as Thomson dealt with leg injuries.

Well-spoken and clean-cut, Thomson doesn’t come across as a, well, punk. But it wasn’t always that way. By his own description he was a cocky guy who ran his mouth too much, swung his fists too quickly and found himself with an inside view of prison bars.

Read the entire article by Mark Emmons of www.mercurynews.com here…