Jeremy Stephens has claimed that his UFC Fight Night 159 opponent Yair Rodriguez confronted him in a hotel lobby in Mexio City the day after their fight was declared a no-contest just 15 seconds into the fight due to ‘Lil Heathen’ having fallen victim to an unintentional eyepoke.
“At first he came up with a thumbs up, I thought he was going to come over and be cordial and say, “I’m sorry, and let’s run it back,’” Stephens told MMAFighting.com. “But he comes up, shakes my hand and then immediately starts talking s—t. Where I come from, you don’t do that, bro. I shoved him back across the hotel and I saw that his sister was recording with her phone, thinking they’re going to catch some little glimpse, or him talking s—t to me.
“He got shoved and once he got shoved, he didn’t even take a step forward. His family didn’t do s—t either. I was about to smack him and his coaches and anybody who came at me, but they all immediately backed up.”
Stephens says he was actually suffered cuts to both his eyes as a result of Rodriguez grazing him with his fingers, but it seems that though he’s suffering from blurred vision and light sensitivity he’s not been badly hurt and he’s now eager to ensure that the fight with the Mexican star still happens next.
“I guarantee you the kid doesn’t want it,” Stephens said. “My bet money is that he doesn’t accept the fight, he bitches out and runs. That’s what he does. You saw how he acted after the win. He’s celebrating like he won over an eye poke. Who does that? The kid was nervous all week. I was up in his head, I’m still in his head, and he can either accept the fight or get the f—k out of my way.
“These are facts. I’ve never been cut from the UFC for not taking fights. I took a fight [against Zabit Magomedsharipov] when he wouldn’t take it. Who’s the bitch and who’s speaking real facts here? I pushed the kid and he didn’t do s—t.”
