Jeremy Stephens pulls out another late KO
UFC 125 this past weekend was full of shocking results from start to finish. From Antonio McKee being out-wrestled and losing for the first time in nearly eight years, to the Lightweight Title fight ending in a Split Draw. Though many of the results throughout the night came as a shock to a lot of people, it was a great card, nonetheless.
One such fight was going as many had expected and then abruptly took a turn in the other direction was a Lightweight fight between “Irish Hand Grenade” Marcus Davis and Jeremy “Lil Heathen” Stephens. This was the third, and final, preliminary fight that was shown on ION Television and was also Davis’ debut at Lightweight. For the first couple minutes of the first round, both fighters just threw out some jabs and tried to find their range. With about two minutes left, Davis avoided a punch from Stephens and rocked him with a right hook, knocking him backwards. Davis rushed in while Stephens was on rubber legs but, for some reason, instead of trying to finish with more punches, he clinched and pushed Stephens against the cage which allowed him to recover and survive the round.
The second round started off pretty much identical to the first. Both fighters threw out some jabs and feints, looking to find their range. A few power punches landed every now and then, but no major damage from either fighter was sustained. While not a whole lot of “scoring” occurred, Davis had gotten the better of the standup exchanges and appeared to be ahead two rounds to none. As both fighters came out for the third round, many felt that Stephens needed to finish the fight if he wanted to win.
However, the third round started, and was going, the same way as the previous two had. Everything was going slow and it appeared that Marcus Davis was going to coast to a decision victory in his Lightweight debut. Unfortunately for Davis, things took a major u-turn as he stepped into a perfectly timed right hook from Stephens and was knocked backwards onto the canvas unconscious. Stephens then flew in with a diving punch that would’ve made Dan Henderson proud.
Having needed a stoppage to win the fight, Stephens pulled one-off at two minutes and thirty-three seconds of the final round. In what may have been the come-from-behind victory of the night, Jeremy Stephens earned a $60,000 “Knockout of the Night” bonus.
With Marcus Davis having lost four of his last five fights, his career with the UFC could be just about over. Stay tuned in the coming days to see how Dana White handles the situation and if Davis will live to fight another day in the UFC.
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Aspiring chef turned MMA writer after financial issues prevented me from pursuing my first dream. Ever since I started watching MMA, I've read up about it and talk about it all the time and with the encouragement of family and friends I finally decided to actively pursue a career in writing about it.Subscribe
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