Yair: Stephens’ ‘Die’ Comments Shows Weakness

Photo by Hector Vivas/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC

During a recent media scrum, Jeremy Stephens declared that if Yair Rodriguez doesn’t die during their upcoming rematch at UFC on ESPN 6 this Friday night (Oct. 18, 2019) in Boston, Mass., then his victory simply won’t count.

While there has been many a fighter that uses over-the-top trash talk to hype himself or herself up for a fight and to try to inflict fear into their opponents, Yair says those comments only prove that “Lil’ Heathen’s” mind is not right and has too many problems outside of the cage.

“Everybody has their own battles to deal with. If he thinks that way, then God bless him because he’s in deep shit right here,” said Yair as he pointed to his head.

Instead of firing back with a bold threat of his own, Yair chose to take a more calm approach, because he doesn’t want to get too deep into his foe’s head. That’s because he wants him fresh and focused for the fight.

“I think he already has a lot of problems in his life, stuff that he has to deal with and I don’t really want to keep on pushing too much into his head. I want him fresh for this fight,” said Yair.

“He is a tough opponent, and I don’t want him to be weak and this is showing me that he is weak. I want him fresh.”

Their first fight — which went down at UFC Fight Night 159 a little less than a month ago in Mexico City — ended in a ‘No Contest’ after Yair inadvertently poked Stephens in the eye just 15 seconds into the bout. As a result, Jeremy was not able to continue and the fight was called. Much to the chagrin of everyone involved.

A day later, the two men were involved in a hotel altercation, which only intensified the looming do-over which now carries a lot more heat, drama and beef into “Beantown.”