After a long stint at featherweight, UFC veteran Jeremy Stephens is now heading back to lightweight, where he’ll go up against Drakkar Klose at UFC Fight Night 189 on April 17th.
The move is perhaps understandable when you consider that Stephens has gone winless in his last five fights at 145lbs, although the standard of opposition has been very high, going up against Jose Aldo, Zabit Magomsharipov, Yair Rodriguez (twice) and most recently Calvin Kattar.
That last fight also saw Stephens fail to make weight, coming in 4lbs over and then going on to be KO’d by Kattar.
That being said, Stephens did pick up a number of big wins during his featherweight campaign, beating the likes of Josh Emmett, Renan Barao, Gilbert Melendez, Dennis Bermudez and Doo Ho Choi.
It’s been over eight years since Stephens last fought at lightweight, which he’d also left at the time due to a three-fight losing streak.
Meanwhile, Klose is looking to rebound from a KO loss to Beneil Dariush back in March of last year.
That snapped Klose’s three-fight winning streak, which had seen him pick up decision wins against Lando Vannata, Bobby Green and Christos Giagos.
Stephens vs. Klose joins a UFC Fight Night 189 card that is likely to be headlined by a middleweight rematch between former champion Robert Whittaker and Paulo Costa.
