UFC veteran Jeremy Stephens will move back up to the lightweight division when he takes on Drakkar Klose later this spring.
Stephens vs. Klose has been added to the UFC Fight Night card on April 17. That event is headlined by middleweights Robert Whittaker and Paulo Costa. Stephens will be moving back up to 155lbs, which was his original weight class in the UFC. He has been competing at featherweight for the past seven years but is going to move back to lightweight for this bout. It’s unknown if this is a permanent move for Stephens or if he’s just taking the fight because it was available and he likes the matchup. Either way, Stephens vs. Klose will take place later this spring. MMAjunkie.com’s Nolan King was the first to break the news.
Stephens (28-18, 1 NC) has struggled for the last three years. He is 0-4, 1 NC over his last five fights, though to be fair to him he has mostly fought elite competition. In his last fight at UFC 249 last April, Stephens suffered a brutal KO loss to Calvin Kattar. The last time he got his hand raised was in February 2018 when he knocked out Josh Emmett, who is one of the top-10 featherweights in the UFC right now. That’s the kind of fight that shows the devastating KO power that Stephens possesses. He has huge power in his hands and his path to victory in this fight is to land a big bomb on Klose’s chin.
Klose (11-2-1) was recently set to fight Luis Pena but the fight was scrapped after Klose’s cornermen tested positive for COVID-19. It’s unknown what the UFC plans on doing with Pena next. As for Klose, he is a solid lightweight who has a 5-2 record in the UFC. He is coming off of a brutal KO loss to Beneil Dariush in his last fight but had won three straight fights prior to that. Overall, this should be a very fun fight against Stephens.
Who do you think wins this lightweight battle between Jeremy Stephens and Drakkar Klose?