Jeremy Stephens will return to the UFC for the first time in four years on Saturday night to fight Mason Jones at UFC On ESPN 67, and he’s now explained how this unlikely comeback came about.
“I never got cut from the UFC,” Stephens told MMA Fighting. “I decided to go around, search for life outside of there and I felt like maybe there was a little bit of bad blood there. I left all good with Dana [White] and things like that from the shove [against Drakkar Klose]. I just wanted to explore my options.
“I watch UFC and seeing some guys on there and I’m like I could knock that dude out who knocked that dude out. I was like I could still be there. It was always in the back of my mind. A brother of mine, rest in peace Anthony Johnson, he took a route outside of there, came back to the UFC, had some really good paydays and a title fight.
“My wife was like ‘why don’t you reach out to Dana?’ I was like I don’t know. Then I was like why not? I’ve dragged myself out of the ring well this far so why not keep going? Why not shoot my shot? I took a shot, I was like you know what babe, write up a message and I’ll send it to him.
“I went to Des Moines …. to handle some business, got to see some family and around town everybody is all happy. They’re like bare-knuckle, that’s crazy! You should be on the Des Moines card. I was like I shot uncle Dana a message and the day I was leaving he got back to me. He was like ‘hey man, I didn’t have your number, I’ve been meaning to get a hold of you, I’ll have Hunter [Campbell] get a hold of you.’
“It was just kind of crazy how it all came together but this isn’t far off from what I’ve been doing, all the years of hard work. I’m able to talk to the godfathers, they give me an opportunity, a one-off deal and it’s a really good deal, too. I go in there and I handle business and commit another murder on May 3 in my hometown, it’s just more buzz. I’m staying active the way I wanted.”
Stephens was submitted in his last fight in the UFC back in 2021, extending his winless run at the time to six fights, and after exiting the promotion he went on to lose two of his next three fights in the PFL promotion.
However, Stephens has since found success in bareknuckle boxing, winning all three of his fights so far, including a TKO victory against former UFC lightweight champ Eddie Alvarez early in the year.
Stephens still remembers the tough times in the Octagon though, and hopes he can now make amends for that with a win on Saturday night.
“I don’t forget about the dark days,” Stephens said. “I’ve been sat out. I kind of keep that chip on my shoulder. Really go in there and prove to myself I actually belong in there. I can still compete at a really high level and I’ll be a dangerous person doing it.
“I crawled out of that well like in The Ring, that movie, right? I was at the bottom of that f*cking well. I crawled out of that motherf*cker. They had the cement over the lid and I had to crawl out bare-knuckle. Really prove my f*cking worth. Put my sh*t on the f*cking line and now I’m getting all my tools back and it’s just going to be f*cking havoc on these motherf*ckers. I get to create myself another opportunity.”
