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  - JOSH THOMSON SHOOTING FOR OCT. 9 RETURN
Saturday, September 04, 2010 - by Damon Martin - MMAWeekly.com
After suffering a rib injury in the first round of his fight against Pat Healy, Josh Thomson sucked it up and figured out a way to win, and win he did. Battling back from the injury, Thomson caught Healy in a rear naked choke with less than a minute to go in their fight back in June.
Now fully healed, Thomson is looking to return to the Strikeforce cage, and October in San Jose, Calif., seems to be the right time and place.
"There is a lot of talk right now about Oct. 9," Thomson told MMAWeekly Radio. "We haven't come up with an opponent yet. I do know that it's been talked about. It was supposed to be (Tatsuya) Kawajiri, it was supposed to be the winner of (Shinya) Aoki and Kawajiri, but the problem is Aoki. I guess the next fight for Aoki was supposed to be in Japan. Dream was having a hard time paying their fighters, I wasn't about to take that chance going over there fighting and not getting paid."
The situation in Dream has been well documented and several fighters have complained about not receiving pay or waiting several weeks or even months after their fights to get compensated by the Japanese promotion.
As Strikeforce continues to build their lightweight division and look for a new contender to face champion Gilbert Melendez later this year, Thomson says there have been a few names tossed around for him, including a certain former top five lightweight from American Top Team.
"Kawajiri's obviously out for a little while with the ankle, for his leg in that fight, so the only other person I can think of would be JZ (Gesias Cavalcante). Billy Evangelista would be another possibility. I'm not exactly sure to be honest," said Thomson.
"Odds are, my whole idea of it all, I believe it will probably be JZ, but like I said, I'm not sure."
Another name that was a possible opponent for Thomson was Washington fighter Lyle Beerbohm, but it appears at this time, he's out of the running for a shot at "The Punk."
"I do know a fight with Lyle Beerbohm was suggested, but I do know they have offered him two other fights on two other occasions to fight Justin Wilcox and he turned them down," Thomson explained. "So I don't know if they're willing to give him a fight with me after turning down somebody else."
Whoever it ends up being, Thomson is just motivated to get back in the cage and compete. After sitting out for over a year between 2008 and 2009, he wants to fight, and while training has taken its toll on his body, he's ready to get in there and throw down once again.
"Everybody says it, if you're not feeling beat up and banged up, then you're not training hard enough. Everybody goes into a fight banged up, so you have to be aware of that when you go into a fight. If you can train with it, you can sure as hell fight with it," Thomson said.
The Oct. 9 card for Strikeforce is still coming together, but the headline fight features Stockton, Calif., bad boy Nick Diaz putting his welterweight title up for grabs in a rematch against pro boxer turned MMA knockout artist K.J. Noons.
With the fight in San Jose, Thomson's backyard, it seems like a natural fit that he'll end up on the show.
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