UFC 249: Jeremy Stephens Suffers Brutal Forehead Gash During Calvin Kattar Fight

Jeremy Stephens entered his UFC 249 bout against Calvin Kattar more than five pounds overweight. The fight continued as part of the massive event, but Kattar was reportedly unhappy. He then proceeded to secure a second-round victory at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena while opening a gash on Stephens’ forehead.

The injury occurred when Kattar threw a flurry of punches and elbows during the second half. He hit Stephens with an elbow to the chin, dropping him to the mat. Kattar then jumped on top of his opponent and threw several punches. He also hit Stephens in the forehead with another elbow and split open his forehead before the referee called the fight.

“Jeremy’s head is going to need a spot weld,” one fan commented after watching Kattar’s performance on Saturday. Several others proclaimed that he would soon be making noise in the featherweight division. They fully expect him to soon push for a title fight against Alexander Volkanovski, who secured the championship belt with a victory over Max Hollaway at UFC 245.

“Listen, man, I’m going to be honest, I was upset,” Kattar said after securing the win. “He [Stephens] showed up five pounds overweight. I don’t like that. But it’s tough to exchange with someone like that and not show them respect.”

This victory pushed Kattar to 21-4 in his professional career. It also served as the third win by knockout in the past four fights. The fourth fight during this stretch was a loss to Zabit Magomedsharipov. Kattar felt that he ran out of time ahead of that fight, but he wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to defeat Stephens.

“New England cartel is here to stay! Hopefully, I climb up to that top five, I’d like a shot at an Ultimate Fighter or someone big,” Kattar said, per CBS Sports. “I feel like I let one go with Zabit in Russia, I just feel like I ran out of time and I wasn’t going to let that happen here. My coach told me to let it go and I felt like did that tonight. It was adding up out there, it takes me a couple of hits to get going out there, I wish that wasn’t the case, but it is. Once I started finding my range, I capitalized on a big shot. I looked down, he was facing up and I finished the job.”