Jeremy Stephens

Jose Aldo Hints Retirement From MMA Is Near

The greatest featherweight of all-time’s career is coming to a close.

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At just 31 years of age, former UFC and WEC featherweight champion Jose Aldo says he is near the end of his mixed martial arts (MMA) career.

In an MMA career that has lasted over a decade, the Brazilian has only lost four times, the first coming when he was submitted by Luciano Azevedo under the Jungle Fight banner. Aldo would go on to be undefeated for over a decade before running into a young Irishman by the name of Conor McGregor, who dethroned “Scarface” from the top of the UFC’s featherweight mountain in just 13 seconds of the first round.

After bouncing back with a unanimous decision victory over Frankie Edgar just several months later for an interim title, Aldo was again promoted to undisputed champion of the featherweight division after McGregor’s jump to 155 pounds. In his first title defense since winning back the title, Aldo was unsuccessful, as he was knocked out in the third round by Max Holloway in his home of Brazil.

Rematching the young Hawaiian later that year, Aldo was once again finished in the third round via TKO. He now approaches a non-title fight – the first of his UFC tenure and his first since he was in WEC in 2009 when he knocked out Cub Swanson in eight seconds – against Jeremy Stephens in the co-main event of this week’s (Sat. July 28, 2018) UFC on FOX 30 in Calgary.

He recently spoke to media in Brazil ahead of this weekend’s card and revealed that he has no plans of signing a new deal with the UFC after his contract expires (quotes via MMA Fighting):

”No, I don’t think so,” Aldo said. “It doesn’t cross my mind to sign a new contract after.”

With that being said, Aldo has three fights left on his UFC deal after fighting Jeremy Stephens in Calgary. Knowing his career in fighting is coming to an end only motivates the former champion to give it his all in the final stretch so he doesn’t go out on a loss:

”I think it’s easier because you know it’s coming near the end, so you have to give your all because you don’t want to go out on a loss, you want to go out on top,” Aldo said. “It’s a lot easier seeing the end of the tunnel and working harder because you know it’s coming to the end.

”When you’re starting there’s that euphoria, but I remain the same. I dream of being champion and dream going out as champion. That’s my biggest motivation. … I take much pride in winning, I don’t accept losses, so I’m always going after that. The day I lose this fire, I think it’s time for us to stop.”

Recently, UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway was forced to pull out of his scheduled title bout with Brian Ortega at UFC 226 due to concussion-like symptoms. Brain trauma is a key reason Aldo is deciding not to continue his fighting career much longer:

”That’s why I think it’s the right moment to stop,” Aldo said. “The first goal is to recapture the belt and then think about it. Not only me, but every athlete fears that. Health comes first, and we have to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

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Jeremy Stephens on José Aldo: I’m Gonna Take His Soul

One week from today, Jeremy Stephens will take part in the biggest fight of his career when he steps into the cage with the man who is widely considered to be the greatest featherweight of all time, José Aldo at UFC on Fox 30. Those who make the argume…

The post Jeremy Stephens on José Aldo: I’m Gonna Take His Soul appeared first on MMA News.

Six Fighters Who Turned Their Careers Around In 2018

These six fighters defied the odds and turned their careers around in 2018.

The post Six Fighters Who Turned Their Careers Around In 2018 appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Mixed martial arts is a crazy and unpredictable sport. It takes a special kind of individual to throw caution into the wind and risk their own physical wellbeing for the sake of entertainment.

There is no blueprint on how to become a fighter. We have seen fighters come from all different walks of life. There have been lifelong athletes that transition into MMA after their collegiate days, and we have seen real estate agents by day turn into savage cage fighters at night.

Likewise, some fighters hit the ground running in MMA, laying waste to opponents right from the very start of their careers. Other fighters don’t quite hit their fighting groove till much later in their careers.

One thing, however, does remain true in combat sports. and particularly MMA. That is you can always expect the unexpected. 2018 has provided mixed martial arts fans with some memorable moments, and with five months still left to go in the year, its a safe bet there are still many more heart-stopping outcomes still to come.

2018 has seen its fair share of comebacks inside the octagon, but we here at Lowkick wanted to put a different spin on the term “comeback.” We took a look back at the first half of 2018 to bring you our list of six fighters who have turned their fight careers around this year.

Here is our list:

There is perhaps no greater example of what one year can do for an MMA career than Jeremy “Lil Heathen” Stephens.

Stephens first set foot into the Octagon back in 2007 at UFC 71. He would lose his debut against Din Thomas on that night, but here we are over a decade later, and “Lil’ Heathen” has never looked better.

In Stephens’ last outing, he destroyed rising Team Alpha Male contender Josh Emmett via KO at 1:35 of the second round of their main event at UFC on FOX 28 in February. Just one month prior to FOX 28 at UFC Fight Night 124, “Lil Heathen” took out highly-touted prospect Doo Ho Choi in a war that earned “Fight of the Night” honors.

Stephens is 2-0 in 2018 and plans on adding more Ws to the win column before year’s end. He was recently called upon to fill in for Max Holloway at UFC 226 after the champ was removed from the card for exhibiting concussion-like symptoms. “Lil’ Heathen” jumped at the short-notice opportunity, however, his would-be opponent Brian Ortega refused the fight.

Stephens now turns his sights to longtime former featherweight king Jose Aldo, who he will be facing in the co-main event of UFC on FOX 30 next week (July 28, 2018).

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Jeremy Stephens Says He’ll Fight ‘Ducking’ Brian Ortega At His Mom’s House

Will Stephens and Ortega ever cross paths?

The post Jeremy Stephens Says He’ll Fight ‘Ducking’ Brian Ortega At His Mom’s House appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Jeremy Stephens had an opportunity to compete for his first UFC title of his mixed martial arts (MMA) career this past weekend (Sat. July 7, 2018), but top-ranked Brian Ortega threw a wrench in those plans.

Stephens was called upon by UFC officials when featherweight champion Max Holloway was forced out of his UFC 226 co-headliner against Brian Ortega. “Blessed” was suffering from some scary concussion-like symptoms and was thus removed from the bout.

Ortega was offered an interim title fight against Stephens, who agreed to take the bout on short notice. The timing couldn’t have been better for Stephens, who was already in a training camp in preparation for his fight against Jose Aldo at UFC on FOX 30 on July 28th.

Instead, “T-City” opted to wait for a healthy Holloway rather than fight “Lil Heathen” on short notice. Stephens joined Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show earlier this week to discuss the situation, and said he was 100 percent ready to fight (quotes via MMA Mania):

“It’s really not my concern what that guy does. I stepped up and he stepped back. It is what it is, what can I do about it? I don’t want to sit here and talk about the guy, I really don’t know him personally,” he said.

“I am willing to fight and all I know is that this is the third time that my name has been in his ear. He has seen me fight a lot, in the front row, and seen me knock a ************ out. I mean, you tell me.”

Stephens was asked if he thinks Ortega is doing as much as possible to avoid a fight with him. His answer – “facts, bro”:

“Those are facts, bro. Deny all you want, he stepped back and I stepped up. They said they were going to fight somebody else, Frankie, and I said take it and then they called it off,” he said.

Should Holloway not be ready to jump back into action anytime soon, Stephens is ready to give things with Ortega another shot. As a matter of fact, he’d be willing to throw down in Ortega’s home state of California at UFC 227 in August:

“I told Dana that I will go to that kid’s mama’s house in L.A. and fight him in his front yard. I’ll fight him August 4, why not? Jose Aldo lost two title fights, he is out. I’ve been in the sport 11 years, putting on dominant performances, why not give him to me right now? Let’s set it up for September 8,” said.

“This kid is ducking me. Whether I fight Jose or not, they can pull me off this card and I will fight this kid in L.A. on August 4. I will go to his backyard, fight him there and pull his gangster card. I saw on Embedded where he is talking about he used to show up to domes and bar fights where you look at a guy, you are the same weight and you fought.

“Well I don’t know if he was there with his little jiu-jitsu crew watching guys like me who actually stepped up and fought grown men when I was 16 years old and I wasn’t even supposed to be there. That was me, I was really living that type of life. I do this **** for fun, because I love it,” concluded a fired-up Stephens.”

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Jeremy Stephens Calls Out Brian Ortega For Ducking Him

The UFC featherweight title fight at UFC 226 had an opportunity to be saved, but that’s not how things played out. Originally the event was set to be co-headlined by UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway defending his title against Brian Ortega…

The post Jeremy Stephens Calls Out Brian Ortega For Ducking Him appeared first on MMA News.

Brian Ortega Wants Featherweight Title Vacated Due To Holloway ‘Water Poisoning’

Brian Ortega has his own plan for the future of the featherweight division.

The post Brian Ortega Wants Featherweight Title Vacated Due To Holloway ‘Water Poisoning’ appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Weight cutting continues to be a hot topic in MMA circles.

Whether it was Michael Chiesa nearly dying in his attempt to make the non-title lightweight limit of 156 pounds at UFC 226, or the revelation that featherweight champion Max “Blessed” Holloway would not be competing at the same event, it would seem the UFC has a real problem with its athletes cutting far to much weight.

Holloway would be removed from the co-main event last Saturday night (July 7th, 2018) for what was thought to be concussion-like symptoms. Now, just three short days later, a new theory has emerged, that of ‘water poisoning’ due to Holloway consuming too much water.

“We heard that he was water loading, which is super dangerous,” UFC President Dana White told Kevin Iole. “When you water load, and I didn’t know this for those of you out there that might not know, either, there is such thing as water poisoning. And you can actually drink too much water and die from it.”

The removal of Holloway left the No. 1-ranked Brian Ortega opponent-less for UFC 226. Albeit, he had some suiters, namely Jeremy Stephens and Frankie Edgar both nearly stepped in to challenge the jiu-jitsu ace. Ortega untimely decided to wait for his title shot, a decision that has garnered some pushback from fans.

With the champions immediate future uncertain, Ortega revealed on “Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show” a potential solution to this unfortunate situation.

“From what I’m getting now, they said that Max might not fight for a long time, and he might not even fight 145. So I told them then, make the belt vacant and then I’ll fight whoever you guys want me to fight ASAP. I’ll fight them at UFC 227 here in Staples (Center in Los Angeles) but let’s get that situated.”

Let us know what you think. Is stripping Max Holloway of the featherweight title the way to go?

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