Des Moines native Jeremy Stephens falls in UFC homecoming to Mason Jones
The Des Moines faithful were on their feet when the hometown favorite Jeremy Stephens made his walkout to the UFC octagon on May 3.
But fellow lightweight Mason Jones heard the noise and played spoiler to the homecoming festivities in enemy territory.
The Welsh fighter earned a unanimous decision win over Stephens, who made his UFC return after a nearly four-year hiatus from the company.
'I just want to go out there and destroy people and I hit Jeremy with so many big shots and I was wrecking the body … I felt like I could've finished him,' Jones said. '… the guy is durable, he's very durable.'
Stephens had his moments inside the octagon. He took part in an exchange in the second round where he landed a few clean blows that bloodied Jones. Ultimately, Jones fended off major damage and kept the momentum on his side.
During round one, Stephens was forced to defend a barrage of leg kicks from Jones. After a violent second round, Jones relied on his grappling to smother Stephens on the ground in round three.
Jones improved to 12-2 in his career while Stephens dropped to 28-20.
'For my career to flourish, his must end and I had to finish that," Jones said. "I had to finish his career, and I wanted to send him to retirement, and I wanted to knock him out so badly, but he is who he is. He's Jeremy 'Heathens' Stephens and when that name came across my desk I was like, 'Listen, I'm going to give him a fire fight.''
Marc Ray is the high school sports reporter for the Iowa City Press-Citizen. He can be reached at MARay@gannett.com, and on X, formerly Twitter, at @themarcszn.
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