Jeremy ‘Lil Heathen’ Stephens takes on legendary former two-time UFC featherweight champion José Aldo in what could well as be the title eliminator on July 28 in Calgary, Canada.

However some turn of events shifted his focus on the current #1 ranked contender Brian ‘T-City’ Ortega. Ortega was supposed to take on champion Max Holloway for the title at UFC 226 last weekend. However just few days before the event, Holloway was forced to pull out due to facing concussion like symptoms including blurry vision and slurred speech.
Stephens immediately contacted UFC President Dana White to chip in as a replacement. Ortega however turned down the fight and opted to wait until champ Holloway is recovered and ready to fight.
That didn’t go well with Stephens. He now claims Ortega is ducking him.
“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,” Stephens said in a recent interview on Ariel Helwani’s MMA show on ESPN.
“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,” he added. “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 shit for fun, because I love it,” concluded a fired-up Stephens.”
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