Jeremy Stephens ready to 'put the pain' on Frankie Edgar at UFC 205

NEW YORK – Jeremy Stephens isn’t the kind of guy who watches tape, thinks about the future or really spends any time on anything beyond getting in the cage and roughing up the man standing across the octagon.

Stephens  (25-12 MMA, 12-11 UFC) fights Frankie Edgar (20-5-1 MMA, 14-5-1 UFC) in a featherweight-contender bout at UFC 205 tonight at New York’s Madison Square Garden. It airs on FS1 prior to the pay-per-view main card.

Speaking with MMAjunkie, Stephens, the No. 12 ranked fighter in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA featherweight rankings, stressed that it was he who made the fight happen.

“Let’s get one thing correct: I called them,” Stephens said. “I called them. I wanted this fight. I let them know, him, Jose (Aldo), anybody at the top can get it, man.  That’s a real statement.”

While Stephens showed the forethought to ask for top contenders at featherweight, he said he’s still keeping it one fight at a time.

The opportunities are there if he wins, Stephens said, but there’s only a single fight that has Stephens’ attention: this one.

“I’m just focused on this fight,” Stephens said. “Winning this fight creates a lot of opportunities. That being said, everything else is irrelevant. Frankie Edgar has my full attention. My focus is dialed it. Come Saturday night, I’m going to put the pain on him and put a whoopin’ on him.”

Stephens is so singleminded, in fact, he won’t watch tape on Edgar.

Instead, he leaves that up to his team while he heads in with the same fists-first strategy that has netted him 16 knockouts in 25 career victories.

“I didn’t watch any tape on him,” Stephens said. “That’s not my job. That’s my coaches’ job. They’ve watched tape and studied him, and we bring in a gameplan. We work on things he’s good at and his weaknesses. Other than that, we’re doing us.”

For more on UFC 205, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.