Last night (Sat., Feb. 6, 2016), Ovince St. Preux and Rafael Cavalcante went to war at UFC Fight Night 82 inside MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. In a dull fight, St. Preux out-worked his opponent. Find out how below!
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Light Heavyweight scrappers Ovince St. Preux and Rafael Cavalcante threw down last night (Feb. 6, 2016) at UFC Fight Night 82 inside MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
St. Preux has faced some ups-and-downs inside the Octagon, but overall he’s established himself as a top-flight 205 lbs. fighter. Last night, he was looking to maintain that position by sending the dangerous Brazilian packing.
Despite coming over from Strikeforce with plenty of momentum, Cavalcante has found little recent success. In all likelihood, “Feijao’s” back was against the wall here, as a bad performance could be his last inside the UFC.
After a tentative start from both men, St. Preux seemed to injure his foot landing a low kick. It had an immediate effect on him, as his movement was less than fluid, and he tried to switch his stance to get more comfortable.
Cavalcante attacked the injured leg with some low kicks, but overall he didn’t look to capitalize much. Despite limping around the cage, “OSP” continued to control the center of the Octagon and walk his opponent down. With less than a minute remaining, St. Preux rocked his opponent with a big left hand and followed him to the mat, landing some nice strikes until the end of the round.
It wasn’t an ideal start, but nonetheless St. Preux clearly won the first round.
St. Preux seemed to recover well between rounds, and he returned to stalking his opponent with some long punches and kicks. While he wasn’t throwing a ton of strikes, it was still more than enough, as “Feijao” was barely throwing any punches at all.
With about two minutes remaining, Cavalcante slipped and allowed his opponent to take top position. From there, St. Preux landed some hard ground strikes and controlled his opponent until the end of the round.
Frankly, “Fejiao” simply didn’t do a whole lot of actual fighting in the first two rounds.
Despite his lacking aggression in the first two rounds, the Brazilian did start the final found with a high kick and big combination. However, following that singular moment, “Fejiao” retreated back into his shell, allowed St. Preux to land, and then gave up an easy takedown.
It was pretty dreadful.
From the top, Cavalcante didn’t work for submissions, sweeps, or stand ups, nor did his opponent do much with his top position. St. Preux opened up with big shots at the end of the round and nearly finished, but that brought up the obvious question.
Cavalcante had already given up. Why didn’t St. Preux try to finish him with more than 10 seconds left?
Regardless, this was a success showing by “OSP,” who overcame some adversity in the form of an injured foot. Overall, it was a pretty standard performance, as St. Preux presented his usual mix of awkward-but-heavy punches, nasty kicks, and power takedowns.
Still, against an opponent who was barely fighting back, St. Preux definitely could’ve done more. There was no reason not to push for the finish, as the Brazilian really wasn’t doing anything.
Now that he’s back in the win column, perhaps a scrap with Jimi Manuwa is in his future.
The less said about Cavalcante’s performance, the better. He simply didn’t fight for vast portions of the fight. He had two real moments of aggression, and even those were brief.
In a 15 minute fight, that’s inexcusable.
Considering this awful showing and his recent record, Cavalcante is likely done in the UFC. At this point, it seems like he doesn’t care.
Last night, Ovince St. Preux cruised past an uninspired Rafael Cavalcante. Where does “OSP” head from here?
For complete UFC Fight Night 82: “Hendricks vs Thompson” results and play-by-play, click HERE!