<div class="Article" style="float: left;">
<table>
<tr style="vertical-align: bottom;">
<td>
<h3><a href="/go=news.detail&gid=457318" target="_blank">
Stephens: Barao 'lacks heart'
</a></h3>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<a href="/go=news.detail&gid=457318" ><img class="photo" src="http://img.mixedmartialarts.com/method=get&rs=73&q=75&x=17&y=59&w=700&h=372&ro=0&s=jeremy-stephens-10-05-12-15-47-21-36.jpg" /></a>
<div style="clear: both; line-height: 1px;height: 1px;"> </div>
</div>
<p>Recently former bantamweight champion Renan Barao announced he was moving up to the featherweight division and the man that will welcome him is tough veteran Jeremy Stephens. </p>
Stephens recently spoke to Fox Sports about welcoming Barao to the division and believes it won't be an easy introduction for the former champion, who he believes 'lacks heart':
"This is the type of fight I want. It's probably one of the reasons why I'm one of the higher paced featherweights," Stephens told FOX Sports. "This is what I signed up for. This is what I love. Coming off the last fight, it wasn't much of a fight. It was so weird and I just didn't really feel like I got to fight. So I stayed in shape and thought maybe I'd get a short notice fight and then they gave me a guy in Renan Barao. It just goes to show the faith the company has in me. They want to see me fight. They want to match me up with the best and they like seeing a fist fight."
"With Renan Barao, you don't have to worry about him running all over the place, point fighting or anything like that. He brings it and I know he's going to be hungry coming off two losses (to TJ Dillashaw). I'm excited for this."
<div style="clear: left; line-height: 1px;height: 1px;"> </div>