Last week it was announced that Jeremy Stephens had been let go from the UFC. His contract had come to an end in 2021 and the promotion did not look to keep him on the roster.
Jeremy Stephens was very quickly picked up by the PFL and became a lightweight for the promotion. He had previously fought at featherweight in the UFC.
Jeremy Stephens recently spoke out about his release from the promotion. Things weren't going well even before his contract came to an end.
“I asked [the UFC] to give me a favorable matchup,” Stephens said on The MMA Hour. “I’ve been fighting beasts, a murderers row for two decades, and I just felt like I was getting iced out. Only fighting once a year, that’s not good on the bank account. I’m just trying to be typical, just like you, I’m trying to provide for my family and the only way I can do that is to fight, and they weren’t really fighting me.”
“I got options to go other places once that contract was up. I didn’t even realize I was up on the contract. Probably almost five months went by on the contract, and I didn’t realize my contract was up. I thought I had one more fight on there, and I searched my options and PFL, we’re gonna go do our best to knock everybody the fuck out and get a million dollars.”
The former UFC featherweight had the exciting million-dollar tournament as motivation for signing with the PFL. He had another big reason to sign with the promotion, he's hoping for a rematch against Anthony Pettis.
“Definitely a potential matchup,” Stephens said. “But I’ve seen Anthony Pettis at the UFC, we were hanging, shaking hands, but honestly bro, he looked fat and out of shape. His cheeks looked like cheeseburgers. That boy looks like he’s getting paid too much. So I would love to run that back with Anthony.
“Last time, I turned him into a wrestler, he just wanted to wrestle me the whole time. We were in a different place and space at that time, I think now we could bring a lot more violence and action-packed, and I’m gonna be in better shape than that boy, trust me. He’s eating too good.”
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