A passionate and patriotic Brazilian crowd was reduced to silence at UFC Fight Night 56 as Ovince St. Preux made quick work of former light heavyweight champ Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.
St. Preux, a budding light heavyweight contender, demonstrated amazing technical maturity by casually sidestepping one of Shogun’s trademark looping punches and answering emphatically with a left hook.
A pen dropping could have penetrated the eerie silence that befell fans in the Ginasio Municipal Tancredo Neves as Shogun crumpled to the canvas. Like a shark in blood-filled waters, St. Preux hurried to put the finishing touches on Shogun with a few unanswered punches before the referee stepped in to stop the fight 34 seconds into the first round.
At the post-fight press conference, St. Preux admitted he was a little surprised by how quickly the fight ended.
“I thought I could win this on my feet. It’s bad to be aggressive against me,” St. Preux said. “I was a little surprised. When I landed the overhand, I said I might as well finish the fight. I was surprised.”
The word “surprised” could be considered an understatement based on these Twitter posts from pro fighters tuning into the event:
Despite being just 32 years old, Shogun is already the subject of retirement talk. The loss to St. Preux marks his sixth loss in his past nine fights and his second consecutive TKO loss this year.
As for St. Preux, a dominant win over a former world champion is one way to bounce back from the decision loss he suffered at the hands of Ryan Bader in August. The former University of Tennessee linebacker appears to finally be finding comfort in the spotlight.
The rest of the light heavyweight division has officially been put on notice.
Jordy McElroy is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA writer for Rocktagon.
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