Often times when fighters move down in weight, they look outright terrible. They’ve often come off losses in a higher weight class and look to drop weight in order to re-spark their careers. But the problem is they often don’t know how to cut the weight properly, and go into the ring or cage looking sluggish and worse than ever before, and so they lose. We’ve seen this happen to former champions
at the top of the ladder like Jake Shields, gatekeepers in the middle of the spectrum like Dan Miller, and bottom-tier washouts like James Irvin. And the list goes on.
But this didn’t happen to Jeremy Stephens, the longtime UFC lightweight who made his 145-pound debut last Saturday night against Esteven Payan in the first fight of UFC 160. Stephens, who was coming off of three straight losses at lightweight, looked terrific at 145 pounds as he beat the blood out of Payan for three straight rounds to claim a dominant unanimous decision victory.
Sure, Payan isn’t a top fighter by any means, but he is a Bellator vet, was 2-0 in Strikeforce, and deserved his chance to have a fight in the UFC. Unfortunately for Payan, though, he was completely overmatched by Stephens for 15 minutes in both the wrestling and standup departments, and there’s no guarantee he will be offered a second fight in the Octagon. So when you consider that the fighter he just beat is likely to get cut, the win might not seem all that impressive for Stephens, but it was the way he brutalized his opponent that was impressive.
Had Stephens just gone into the cage and jabbed around Payan, or taken him down and just lain on him, then it wouldn’t been impressive. But he was constantly throwing power punches and going for big takedowns and delivering vicious ground-and-pound. And we got to see him for a full 15 minutes and realize that his cardio was able to hold up the entire time, despite the fact that he was constantly working. In a nutshell, this guy could be a contender at 145 pounds.
There are a lot of very good fighters in the UFC featherweight division. Jose Aldo, Anthony Pettis, Chad Mendes, Clay Guida, Ricardo Lamas, Dennis Siver, Cub Swanson, Chan Sung Jung, Erik Koch, and Dustin Poirier, just to name ten. But don’t be surprised if Stephens’ name is eventually added to the list, because he showed a wide range of skills in the fight with Payan, and he didn’t even get to display the one thing that he’s most well-known for: his brutal knockout power, which has finished a multitude of opponents in devastating fashion during his run as a UFC lightweight.
But at featherweight, expect Stephens to be even more powerful than he was at 155, and that’s plain scary for anyone in the division, considering this is the same man who possesses the wide-ranging skills displayed in the Payan bout. So watch out, 145, because Jeremy Stephens is coming for you.
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UFC 160: Velasquez vs. Bigfoot II took place on May 25, 2013 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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