BKFC President Talks Eddie Alvarez vs. Jeremy Stephens, Conor McGregor Ringside
Eddie Alvarez vs. Jeremy Stephens is a match made in heaven for the BKFC.
The battle between former UFC sluggers headlines Knuckle Mania 5 on Jan. 25 at the Wells Fargo Center, the bareknuckle boxing promotion's debut in the city of Philadelphia, hometown to Alvarez and BKFC President David Feldman, who made it all happen.
Alvarez vs. Stephens was initially announced back in November, recieving a ton of buzz as Alvarez and Stephens aren't known to ever be in boring fights, engaging in wars their entire career across various promotions - and the BKFC ruleset only raises the stakes.
Feldman On Why Alvarez vs. Stephens Was The Fight To Make
Feldman explains what went into booking this fight and what may come out of it, as former UFC Champion Conor McGregor will be in attendance for the event.
McGregor has history with both Eddie Alvarez and Jeremy Stephens from 2016, mocking Stephens at a press conference before knocking out Alvarez in a masterful performance at UFC 205 to become the first simultaneous two-division champ in UFC history.
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"I just thought that both of them were former stars in the UFC," Feldman told MMA Knockout. "Eddie Alvarez, former UFC Champ, also hometown guy came from nothing, born in Kensington, found his way to give a great life to his family, and Jeremy Stephens came up kind of the same way in Iowa, moved to San Diego, fought for us twice, had two very good knockouts so far. Eddie Alvarez has two fights with us as well. I just thought that the public would really get to this. I thought like, I could get Conor McGregor talking about 'who the f**' are you?' to Jeremy Stephens."
"I thought I can get that fired up and I think at the press conference here on the 23rd, it's gonna get like that," Feldman added. "But I just thought that these two guys don't know how to back up. They're not the most technical guys in the world. They come in and they wanna fight and that's what we had to get Philadelphia for the first time here."
"Jeremy Stephens Looks Very, Very Good in BKFC..."
Told "Who the f*** is that guy?" by Conor McGregor in 2016, Jeremy Stephens is a well-established name in combat sports after fighting a murderer's row of opponents in the UFC's featherweight and lightweight divisions, including but not limited to Rafael Dos Anjos, Anthony Pettis, Charles Oliveira, Max Holloway, Frankie Edgar, Jose Aldo, and many more.
Alvarez will be the latest former champion Stephens comes across, the longtime UFC featherweight moving up to 165lbs against the bigger Alvarez.
"He's confident," Feldman said of Stephens going up a weight class to fight Alvarez. "He said this is his sport. He thinks he can dominate here. He's had two great performances so far with solid 155 pound guys and he walked right through them."
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Stephens defeated former UFC contender Jimmie Rivera in his promotional debut the same night Alvarez lost his second BKFC fight to Mike Perry. Stephens is 2-0 in the promotion while Alvarez is 1-1, with the former UFC and Bellator champ outlasting Chad Mendes in 2023.
"Jeremy Stephens looks very, very good in BKFC, and the one thing about him, he's very, very confident right now. He's playing the heel role right now with Philadelphia. He called out all of Philadelphia, he's playing that heel role and he's loving it. I think both guys are gonna be really, really fired up for this and I'm expecting fireworks."
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