“Lil Heathen” is back in the UFC after a few years away.
Months after being “drafted” by the fledgling GFL, Jeremy Stephens has apparently parted ways with that organization and re-signed with the UFC. Stephens (29-21, 1NC) was recently announced by promotion officials as returning to the octagon for UFC Des Moines on May 3, 2025, where he’ll take on Mason Jones.
Jones, like Stephens, is making his return to the company in the fight. For Jeremy Stephens, however, the fight is a homecoming, both in terms of his return to the UFC, and fighting in his birthplace of Des Moines, Iowa.
That makes the signing a little more understandable. Once a fan-favorite in the promotion’s lightweight division, Stephens exited the company in 2021 off a loss to Mateusz Gamrot. He then joined the PFL, going 1-2 across three fights before moving on to boxing and bareknuckle boxing, the latter under the BKFC banner.
While Stephens has three straight wins in BKFC, his last fight in MMA was a 2022 loss in the PFL to Natan Schulte. Still, adding the 38-year old to UFC Des Moines is sure to make the local fans happy. The veteran has shared the cage with the likes of Calvin Kattar, Yair Rodriguez, Jose Aldo, Josh Emmett, Frankie Edgar, Max Holloway, Cub Swanson, Renan Barao, and Charles Oliveira, among others.
Mason Jones has spent the last two years competing for Cage Warriors, where he’s won four straight fights.
UFC Des Moines takes place May 5 at the Wells Fargo Arena with the following match-ups reported for the event:
- Cory Sandhagen vs. Deiveson Figueiredo
- Reinier de Ridder vs. Bo Nickal
- Santiago Ponzinibbio vs. Daniel Rodriguez
- Yana Santos vs. Miesha Tate
- Jeremy Stephens vs. Mason Jones
- Marlon Vera vs. Mario Bautista
- Marina Rodriguez vs. Gillian Robertson
- Trevor Peek vs. Lee Jeong-yeong
- Cameron Smotherman vs. Serhiy Sidey
- Junior Tafa vs. Tuco Tokkos
- Montel Jackson vs. Daniel Marcos
- Ryan Loder vs. Azamat Bekoev
