Jeremy Stephens admits there’s fear in fighting, but it helps drive him to succeed. This Sunday night (Jan. 14), Stephens will take on Doo Ho Choi in the main event of UFC Fight Night 124. The action takes place inside the Scottrade Center in St….
Jeremy Stephens admits there’s fear in fighting, but it helps drive him to succeed. This Sunday night (Jan. 14), Stephens will take on Doo Ho Choi in the main event of UFC Fight Night 124. The action takes place inside the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri. Speaking to MMAJunkie.com, Stephens talked about his desire […]
Longtime veteran Jeremy Stephens may have his hands full with rising contender Dooho Choi in the main event of this weekend’s (Sun. January 14, 2017) UFC Fight Night 124 from the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri, but it appears he’s still trying to rustle up a rivalry with Conor McGregor. After becoming one of MMA’s […]
Longtime veteran Jeremy Stephens may have his hands full with rising contender Dooho Choi in the main event of this weekend’s (Sun. January 14, 2017) UFC Fight Night 124 from the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri, but it appears he’s still trying to rustle up a rivalry with Conor McGregor.
After becoming one of MMA’s most quoted punchlines when McGregor famously said “who da fook is that guy” to Stephens’ trash talk at a press conference, Stephens took to Twitter a few months back to suggest that it was McGregor’s own mother who “knows who da fook” he was:
With the spotlight on him for the week, Stephens isn’t letting up on making his name by way of McGregor’s sport-redefining star power. During an interview with TMZ Sports, “Lil’ Heathen” said he would take McGregor’s mother Margaret on a date where his father would pick them up in a cab:
”His mom’s pretty hot too, she’s great,” Stephens said. “Maybe his dad can pick us up with the cab he used to drive and then take me and his mom out on a date. Hey bro, look at her. She’s not bad looking, right? She’s a lady right there … she’s always got the invite to be snugged up here under this right arm.”
McGregor may have been out of action for nearly 14 months, yet it doesn’t seem like a single conversation about mixed martial arts can arise without his name somehow becoming involved, evident by the fact just that has transpired concerning a Midwest-U.S. event that has nothing to do with him despite Stephens’ continued trash talk towards the absentee lightweight champion.
If he’s trying to make more of a name for himself on social media, it may be working, but at some point, his jabs grow may grow weary considering he’s light years away from ever getting an actual fight with “The Notorious.”
Tucked between two sizable pay-per-view cards is UFC Fight Night 124, going down Sunday from the Scottrade Center in St. Louis.
It’s customary to seek the good in a UFC card, particularly those that may otherwise be overlooked. In this instance, this 1…
Tucked between two sizable pay-per-view cards is UFC Fight Night 124, going down Sunday from the Scottrade Center in St. Louis.
It’s customary to seek the good in a UFC card, particularly those that may otherwise be overlooked. In this instance, this 13-fight slate is a bit of a slog, particularly the five contests scheduled for UFC Fight Pass.
That said, the main card and much of the televised undercard is pretty spicy, with a real thunderbolt of a main event. Here’s a look at three of the fights you can’t miss on Sunday’s lineup.
Featherweight
Dooho Choi (14-2) vs. Jeremy Stephens (26-14)
Odds courtesy of OddsShark: Choi -160, Stephens +140
Airs on: Fox Sports 1
They can’t all be curveballs, you know. Choi and Stephens make for a terrific main event that seems likely to end violently.
Fans are still recovering from Choi’s 2016 epic with Cub Swanson, but the Korean Superboy has plenty of action-fighting pedigree tracing back to his early days on the Asian circuits. He’s 26 years old but looks 13, adding some delightful cognitive dissonance to those crushing punch combinations.
Stephens has been a staple of the UFC lightweight and featherweight stables for more than a decade. His first UFC opponent? Din Thomas. Sixteen career knockouts speak to how he gets most of his wins.
Both of these guys not only go for knockouts but tend to use their fists. The battleworn 31-year-old Stephens has lost steam of late, struggling for consistency in his last few bouts. His last fight was a win, but it was over an even more worn-looking Gilbert Melendez.
Soak up the Superboy while you can, as he will soon begin the military service that is mandatory in his native South Korea.
Even before Belfort announced his retirement after this fight, the co-main event was still plum MMA viewing.
Hall is inconsistent and enigmatic as a fighter. For every highlight-reel knockout that sends fans to their feet, a basic lapse of grappling or overall fight IQ sends them to the bottle. After three straight losses, though, a bonus-winning knockout of Krzysztof Jotko got him back on the sunny side of the street.
The New Yorker has a winnable fight here against the 40-year-old Belfort. He suffered a serious string of setbacks over the past couple of years, only to rebound last year against Nate Marquardt, who is now retired.
Belfort was a great fighter in his prime, but his game relied on hand speed and preternatural power. Those things fade with age. We’ll see if he can summon the fountain of youth in one last performance.
Featherweight
Darren Elkins (23-5) vs. Michael Johnson (17-12)
Odds: Johnson -155, Elkins +135
Airs on: Fox Sports 1
Elkins was long considered a consummate journeyman. When he won, it was often ugly and involved a split decision. That was not the case last March over Mirsad Bektic in a knockout that can be counted among the greatest comeback wins in UFC history. All he did since then was beat Dennis Bermudez. By split decision, of course. It ran his winning streak to five.
He gets a big step up against Johnson, who has dropped four of five—but did so against the elite of the lightweight division. Here, he tries his luck at 145 pounds. We’ll see if the steeper weight cut made an impact on his power or stamina. Even more so, we’ll see if Elkins’ pressure can punch his ticket to contender status.
Tucked between two sizable pay-per-view cards is UFC Fight Night 124, going down Sunday from the Scottrade Center in St. Louis.
It’s customary to seek the good in a UFC card, particularly those that may otherwise be overlooked. In this instance, this 1…
Tucked between two sizable pay-per-view cards is UFC Fight Night 124, going down Sunday from the Scottrade Center in St. Louis.
It’s customary to seek the good in a UFC card, particularly those that may otherwise be overlooked. In this instance, this 13-fight slate is a bit of a slog, particularly the five contests scheduled for UFC Fight Pass.
That said, the main card and much of the televised undercard is pretty spicy, with a real thunderbolt of a main event. Here’s a look at three of the fights you can’t miss on Sunday’s lineup.
Featherweight
Dooho Choi (14-2) vs. Jeremy Stephens (26-14)
Odds courtesy of OddsShark: Choi -160, Stephens +140
Airs on: Fox Sports 1
They can’t all be curveballs, you know. Choi and Stephens make for a terrific main event that seems likely to end violently.
Fans are still recovering from Choi’s 2016 epic with Cub Swanson, but the Korean Superboy has plenty of action-fighting pedigree tracing back to his early days on the Asian circuits. He’s 26 years old but looks 13, adding some delightful cognitive dissonance to those crushing punch combinations.
Stephens has been a staple of the UFC lightweight and featherweight stables for more than a decade. His first UFC opponent? Din Thomas. Sixteen career knockouts speak to how he gets most of his wins.
Both of these guys not only go for knockouts but tend to use their fists. The battleworn 31-year-old Stephens has lost steam of late, struggling for consistency in his last few bouts. His last fight was a win, but it was over an even more worn-looking Gilbert Melendez.
Soak up the Superboy while you can, as he will soon begin the military service that is mandatory in his native South Korea.
Even before Belfort announced his retirement after this fight, the co-main event was still plum MMA viewing.
Hall is inconsistent and enigmatic as a fighter. For every highlight-reel knockout that sends fans to their feet, a basic lapse of grappling or overall fight IQ sends them to the bottle. After three straight losses, though, a bonus-winning knockout of Krzysztof Jotko got him back on the sunny side of the street.
The New Yorker has a winnable fight here against the 40-year-old Belfort. He suffered a serious string of setbacks over the past couple of years, only to rebound last year against Nate Marquardt, who is now retired.
Belfort was a great fighter in his prime, but his game relied on hand speed and preternatural power. Those things fade with age. We’ll see if he can summon the fountain of youth in one last performance.
Featherweight
Darren Elkins (23-5) vs. Michael Johnson (17-12)
Odds: Johnson -155, Elkins +135
Airs on: Fox Sports 1
Elkins was long considered a consummate journeyman. When he won, it was often ugly and involved a split decision. That was not the case last March over Mirsad Bektic in a knockout that can be counted among the greatest comeback wins in UFC history. All he did since then was beat Dennis Bermudez. By split decision, of course. It ran his winning streak to five.
He gets a big step up against Johnson, who has dropped four of five—but did so against the elite of the lightweight division. Here, he tries his luck at 145 pounds. We’ll see if the steeper weight cut made an impact on his power or stamina. Even more so, we’ll see if Elkins’ pressure can punch his ticket to contender status.
In December 2016, Korean fighter Dooho Choi was the talk of the UFC after turning in a Fight of the Year performance opposite Cub Swanson at UFC 206 in Toronto.
Choi (14-2) has not fought since, but the featherweight contender will be back inside the O…
In December 2016, Korean fighter Dooho Choi was the talk of the UFC after turning in a Fight of the Year performance opposite Cub Swanson at UFC 206 in Toronto.
Choi (14-2) has not fought since, but the featherweight contender will be back inside the Octagon as a -160 betting favorite (bet $160 to win $100) against Jeremy Stephens (26-14) in the main event of UFC Fight Night 124 at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis Sunday.
Choi fell to Swanson via unanimous decision in the aforementioned bout, which won Fight of the Night honors, to end his 12-fight winning streak. He had knocked out eight straight opponents prior to that setback and earned Performance of the Night bonuses in his previous two bouts, first-round knockouts of Sam Sicilia and Thiago Tavares.
Meanwhile, Stephens is a +130 underdog (bet $100 to win $130) at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark and coming off a UD win over Gilbert Melendez at UFC 215.
Each of his past five fights has gone the distance, with his hand getting raised just twice during that stretch. Two of those losses came at the hands of featherweight champion Max Holloway and No. 1 contender Frankie Edgar, who will fight each other for the title in the main event at UFC 222 on March 3 in Las Vegas.
Before Choi-Stephens, a pair of middleweight contenders will meet in a co-main event that should not last long, as Uriah Hall (13-8) takes on Vitor Belfort (26-13, 1 no-contest).
Hall is listed as a consensus -310 favorite and has seen five of his past six bouts end inside the distance, with three finishing before the first-round bell. He knocked out Krzysztof Jotko in the second round of his most recent fight, at UFC Fight Night 116, to win a Performance of the Night bonus after losing his previous three contests.
Belfort is a +250 underdog and also ended a three-bout winless streak in his most recent outing, scoring a UD victory against Nate Marquardt at UFC 212 June 3. The 40-year-old Brazilian had not gone the distance in almost a decade, and 21 of his wins have come by finish (18 knockouts and three submissions).
He was knocked out in his previous three fights, with one of them overturned to a no-contest after opponent Kelvin Gastelum tested positive for marijuana.
From his looks, Dooho Choi appears to be a mild-mannered person. But the 26-year-old nicknamed “The Korean Superboy” has a nasty streak that comes out once the Octagon door closes. Choi looks to secure his fourth victory in five fights unde…
From his looks, Dooho Choi appears to be a mild-mannered person. But the 26-year-old nicknamed “The Korean Superboy” has a nasty streak that comes out once the Octagon door closes. Choi looks to secure his fourth victory in five fights under the UFC’s banner this Sunday night when he meets Jeremy Stephens in the main […]
Tucked between two sizable pay-per-view cards is UFC Fight Night 124, going down Sunday from the Scottrade Center in St. Louis.