Despite the loss, Thompson was praised for making a solid account of himself, managing to land some punches on the dominant champion, who had seldom been hit clean by any of his opponents by that point. In the post-fight interview, Klitschko admitted that the fight turned out to be tougher than expected: "It is not so easy to defend all the titles and it has been a while since I last had a black eye so today I really look like a boxer. I did not expect the victory to come that hard." After the fight, Thompson expressed disappointment with the final outcome of the fight: "I was fatigued, I thought he was fatigued too. He did what a great champion did, he took advantage when I was vulnerable. The only thing that hurts on me is my heart – for losing." He reportedly earned $500,000 for the fight.