Featherweight Jeremy Stephens has promised to expose former champion Jose Aldo when they go toe-to-toe in Calgary on Sunday.
The American heads into the fight off the back of three successive victories against Gilbert Melendez, Doo Ho Choi and Josh Emmett.
He is undoubtedly full of confidence but hasn’t faced many as tough as Aldo since making his UFC debut in 2007.
It’s fair to say that Aldo hasn’t been the same fighter since losing his featherweight title to Connor McGregor in 2015 – when the Irishman landed a knockout blow just 13 seconds into the bout.
Jose Aldo responded by beating Frankie Edgar in 2016 but back-to-back defeats to Max Holloway appear to have taken a lot out of the Brazilian.
Stephens feels Aldo is there for the taking this weekend and has vowed to expose the 31-year-old as he looks to send out a statement to current champion Holloway.
“This guy, he’s stayed the same,” Stephens said.
“Conor’s taken his head, Max took his heart, I’m gonna take his soul.”
“I mean, look at his face. It’s droopin’. He’s been in a lot of wars. He’s been in a lot of fights. The guy’s got a lot of damage. Not only that, just the training camps that he’s had. And I’ll get my chance to expose him, and I’ll do exactly what I said.”
He added: “I’m not saying things to lie. These are facts. These are pure facts. Check it out, after July 28th, we’ll be talking about it again. You’ll be like, damn, he was right. I’m gonna expose this dude.”
