Jeremy Stephens gambled with his fight career after an undefeated stint with BKFC, and it paid off.
With UFC returning to Des Moines, Iowa, for a Fight Night event on May 3, the card has started to take shape, but no bout announcement surprised as much as Stephens’ return against lightweight prospect Mason Jones. Stephens, 38, last fought in the UFC in 2021 and has since competed in the PFL, boxing, and bare-knuckle boxing, most recently stopping ex-UFC champ Eddie Alvarez with a grisly broken jaw in their BKFC Knucklemania V match in January. That was Stephens’ last on his BKFC deal, which allowed him to shoot his shots elsewhere. Now, against all odds, he’s heading back to his old stomping grounds.
“I manifested it,” Des Moines native Stephens said on Uncrowned’s “The Ariel Helwani Show.” “You guys ever seen the movie ‘The Ring’? I crawled out that well with my bare hands and moved the concrete lid that was over the top. Now I’m just crawling, wreaking havoc on these motherf***ers, bro. It’s so great.
“I willed this into reality. Delusions to reality. I journaled this in. Making it happen, I did it on my own. People left me for dead. I rose up like The Undertaker, and I reached out to the godfather himself. I took a shot, bet on [myself] again, and here we are. The return in my hometown. You cannot write or make a movie up about this. This is the life, baby.”
Stephens appeared to be near the end of his road when he left MMA in 2022, having won just one of his final nine bouts across both the UFC and PFL. Yet “Lil Heathen” found renewed life in the world of bare-knuckle boxing, going 3-0 in BKFC with two stoppages and a Performance of the Night honor. Against Jones, Stephens will look for his first UFC win since a crushing knockout of Josh Emmett in 2018.
It’s no secret that Stephens’ 14-year run with the UFC ended in rough fashion. Prior to his final Octagon appearance against Mateusz Gamrot, Stephens was scheduled to fight Drakkar Klose in 2021 — or at least he was, until he shoved Klose during their weigh-in staredown. The shove injured Klose and canceled the bout, which led to Stephens’ 65-second submission loss to Gamrot and subsequent UFC release.
The Iowan, who’s still tied for the sixth-most bouts in UFC history (34), admitted he didn’t believe his chances of returning to the UFC were strong at that point. Ultimately, his wife gave him a little push — and with the help of some serendipitous flight complications, the unexpected reunion came full circle
“I felt like maybe we left [the UFC] on kind of rough terms with that push to Drakkar,” Stephens said. “I know that wasn’t a good thing. I was on a losing streak, was in a different mindset at that time. I’ve always kept a great relationship with [UFC CEO] Dana [White]. When my youngest daughter was born, we were watching the UFC while my wife was giving birth. I shot him a [message], and he’s always gotten back to me if I ever need tickets. Just anything, he’s always just been there. The dude was there when I was in jail. He’s like a homie, right?
“But realistically, I was low-key in my mind [thinking after BKFC], ‘I don’t know, I’ve already kind of had it with them. I kind of went my own route, I don’t know.’ And my wife, this all kind of came [together] on her birthday before I took a trip back to Iowa to go see my mom, go see my family. She’s like, ‘You should shoot Dana a text.’ They just announced the Iowa card shortly after I’d fought in bare-knuckle [boxing].
“And I like, ‘I’ll tell you what. If you [write] the text, I’ll shoot it to him. You write it up, I’ll copy-paste,'” he continued. “Sure enough, as I’m flying out Tuesday night to Des Moines, right as I’m on the plane, I shoot him the message, turn off my phone and I go spend the whole week in Des Moines. I didn’t hear back from him. I wake up on my uncle’s couch at four in the morning to head back home to San Diego, and I’ve got a message from him at one in the morning, like, ‘Hey man. I’ve lost my phone contacts. I’ve been trying to get ahold of you.’ And this is from Dana. He’s like, ‘Hit me up, give me your number. Would love to hear from you. I’ll have [UFC CBO] Hunter [Campbell] contact you.'”
Stephens continues to roll the dice at this stage in his career. The veteran brawler revealed that his new UFC contract is a one-fight deal — just the Jones fight — and he opted to take a show/win purse split rather than just a flat fee. Afterward, he hopes to return to BKFC to keep his undefeated streak in bare-knuckle boxing alive, which would ideally mean a big return against BKFC star Mike Perry.
Stephens said his relationship with BKFC remains strong. His latest move just came down to a matter of communication.
“Man, love [BKFC president] David Feldman. I’ve got a great relationship with him. I’m still that f***ing dude, bro. Ain’t nobody going to get me in bare-knuckle. It’s like going back in Triple A, putting the gloves on here. I’m still a nightmare and dangerous in a lot of situations without the gloves, but we reached out to Dave. As a Fortune 500 company of Jeremy Stephens, I have to look out for me, I have to do what’s best for me.
“When I fought Jimmie Rivera [in December 2023 with BKFC], he gave me a nice fat check, [then] I sat out for a year. No communication. [An] April [fight] didn’t happen, May didn’t happen, June, July, and I fought ‘ODB’ [Bobby Taylor] in like September. So me and my management we were trying to get in contact with him … but it’s just hard to communicate with him. Really, I said this in the past, the only thing with Dave Feldman is the communication. And I don’t like that uncertainty.”
