Jordan Thompson: 5 things you should know about the ‘Troublesome’ Frank Warren fighter

The 26-year-old comes from a high-achieving family
Father Geoff is an MBE and has a doctorate. The former karate champion (like Jordan’s mother) is also the founder and executive chairman of the Manchester-based award-winning Youth Charter for Sport, which carries out valuable work using sport as a vehicle to inspire disadvantaged young people away from crime, drugs and gang-related activity. Sister Francesca is a trained ballerina (currently working in the Lion King British tour; Jordan has been to the show in Bristol and Edinburgh so far), while younger brother Luke works in Wall Street.

Jordan was ranked in the top ten of British tennis at the age of 16
He grew disillusioned with the sport and meandered before falling into first unlicensed boxing and MMA aged 20, then eventually the traditional code. “I had 70 boxing unlicensed fights, full-contact kickboxing, MMA, bareknuckle fighting… MMA wasn’t for me, I got threw around in MMA!”

He hid his new vocation from his parents for nearly two years
“I’m thankful to my parents but I was never pressured into anything; they just presented with a lot of opportunities and boxing found me. When I was hiding it from them, I was so hellbent on not getting hit. I’m not sure why I didn’t feel I could tell them, I suppose I wasn’t sure I was gonna take it seriously.”

Thompson decided to uproot from Manchester last year and move to London; it meant leaving longtime trainer Haroon Headley
“That was one of the main things holding me back from the move. With most situations when a fighter leaves a trainer, it’s because he’s not happy but in this case there was nothing wrong with him. It was more a case that I’m the problem and I need to sort out my life; to stop being in and around my family and to move out of my comfort zone. Haroon made it easy, he was very helpful and we still speak regularly.”

Jordan now trains under Don Charles in Mill Hill, and does personal training in West London
“Don was the first person I saw; there was a couple I was picking from, one was too far away. We had a couple of training sessions, we got on very well, he had a really good energy. Don met my dad not long after, everything was just connecting. With the PT work, I’m building up both a good clientele and fanbase.”