The Thing is a skilled street fighter and very good at hand to hand combat. He has a superhuman stamina , durability and strength. He has a rock-like skin and has very excellent dexterity and has ecnhanced lung capacity.His true identity is Benjamin "Ben" Grimm, a very excellent football player during his high school student and grew tough in the street.Source here
image sourceHe did meet Reed Richards and Victor von Doom during his high school days and he has interest with space rockets and explorations around Mars. And during their ride on the upper atmosphere on Earth, they are pelted by a cosmic ray storm and then exposed with radiation and so he did acquire a special powers and changed his screen into a rock-like.Source here