UFC
Dana White explains his side of Jeremy Stephens situation at UFC on FX 5
Oct 5, 2012 - 10:50:55 PM Dana White explains his side of Jeremy Stephens situation at UFC on FX 5

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

When word broke Friday morning that Jeremy Stephens had been arrested at his Minneapolis hotel, it seemed likely that his bout with Yves Edwards at UFC on FX 5 would not happen. After being confronted about it on Twitter by fans wondering what was going on, UFC President Dana White went on the offensive and made it clear that Stephens would be fighting, and that the "media" had it wrong in saying he wouldn't be.

At the time, no reports had explicitly stated that Stephens was out, instead they speculated on the difficulty of keeping the fight on the card considering Hennepin County jail records had Stephens listed as still in custody as the event was drawing near. White further reiterated on the Fuel TV prelims broadcast that they were trying to get Stephens out of jail and to the arena for the fight.

Ultimately, the event concluded without that fight taking place, and White took to The Underground message board to explain what happened on Friday. Below is what White wrote:

"So here's the deal. I have been working since 11am to get him out of jail. the people in Iowa hate this kid and are going to stick it to him for SURE. Everytime I would cut a deal for bail they would change the deal and I was willing to do anything. They kept changing the deal thinking I would tapout and when I didn't they left me hangin changing it every 5 mins. People at Minn Sheriffs Dept were amazing and I wNt to thank them. He has been in town since Monday and they arrested him Friday at 11am for a reason to really fuck him. I literally just told Yves he wasn't fighting 35 mins ago. He is a TRUE OLD SCHOOL PRO who waited all night for us to try and get Jeremy here!!!!! It is a pleasure being in biz with u Yves. So I wanted u the fans to hear it from me first."

There's still no official word on what Stephens was arrested for, outside of it being due to a warrant from a felony charge in Iowa.

Penick's Analysis: I won't go into the rumors here regarding what Stephens may have been arrested for, but regardless, it seemed off for the UFC to be pushing so hard to get Stephens out of jail to fight considering it was a felony warrant he was arrested on. Whether he's innocent or guilty, being arrested the day of a fight couldn't have anyone in a great state of mind. Now, Iowa made things difficult clearly, but if they felt they had a reason to keep him locked up, they were going to keep him locked up. There's only speculation at this point, so we'll have more updates as information comes to light.