MMAmania.com resident fighter analyst — and aspiring professional fighter — Andrew Richardson breaks down the mixed martial arts (MMA) game of UFC 197 headliner Ovince St. Preux, who looks to shock the world this Saturday (April 23, 2016) inside MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Explosive knockout artist, Ovince St. Preux, will battle with former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) strap-hanger, Jon Jones, in an interim 205-pound title war this Saturday (April 23, 2016) at UFC 197 inside MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
This is a wild turn of events for “OSP.” After losing his pivotal match up with Glover Teixeira last Summer, St. Preux has fought just once, taking an uninspired decision victory over Rafael Cavalcante.
Now, he’s fighting the greatest Light Heavyweight of all time for a title that Jones never lost.
It’s certainly a major opportunity, so let’s take a closer look at St. Preux’s skill set and see how he stacks up with “Bones.”
Striking
He’s far from the most technical kickboxer in the world, but St. Preux is definitely a dangerous striker. He’s at his best when looking to counter strike — the man does have an 80-inch reach after all — but his wild punches are also difficult to deal with simply because it takes such a single clean connection for him to end the fight.
To understand St. Preux’s offense, it’s important to note that he’s mostly a one-handed fighter. From the Southpaw stance, “OSP” leads with long straights or reaching hooks. When he’s the aggressor, St. Preux is positively lunging into these strikes (GIF). On occasion, he’ll shoot out a jab — a stiff, dangerous one — but that’s not particularly common.
When forced to lead, St. Preux’s technique sometimes goes out the window. Suddenly, he’s throwing himself out of his stance and off-balance. Plus, he has the habit of only throwing one or two strikes at a time — unless he’s wildly flurrying — which can make him predictable.
St. Preux is largely able to get away with this style because of his length and speed. Plus, it’s a bit more common for Southpaws to rely so heavily on their power hand. However, it’s still an issue, as Ryan Bader found a lot of success with his jab despite having a significantly shorter reach.
The best tool in St. Preux’s stand up arsenal is his strong left roundhouse kick. Opened up against opponents of the opposite stance, St. Preux capitalizes on the best two aspects of his game: Length and power. “OSP” can land hard kicks to the body or head from well outside his opponent’s range. He even managed to break Ryan Jimmo’s arm with one of these kicks when “Big Deal” went to block a high kick.
There’s a clear impact on these kicks, and his opponents definitely feel them, blocked or otherwise. In this way, St. Preux is often able to maintain distance, as his kicking feints have to be respected. Since these kicks are so powerful, it’s not even that important that St. Preux rarely sets them up, as few opponents are willing to stand in range and absorb them anyway.
In addition, St. Preux has attacked with some other kicking techniques. He’s clearly been working on his front snap kick, which digs the ball of the foot or toes into the mid-section. Against fighters with a bent posture — most notably Patrick Cummins, who St. Preux kicked with this technique a few times — this is particularly exhausting and often forces them to stand straighter.
In St. Preux’s bout with Teixeira, his snap kick nearly won him the fight. Early in the first round, St. Preux ripped into his opponent’s mid-section and sent him diving for takedowns. Teixeira is known for his durability, but “OSP” hurt him very badly with this technique.
Counter punching is another extremely important part of St. Preux’s game. His last two knockout victories were ended via a single counter punch. While neither counter punch was a technical marvel, St. Preux — as usual — made full use of his length and power to punish his opponent nonetheless.
It certainly helped that neither opponent was known for his striking defense. “Shogun” Rua has been hittable for about a decade now, and that’s a less than ideal trait when squaring off with St. Preux. As the Brazilian recklessly swung without any set up at all, St. Preux smashed him with a left hook (GIF).
On the other hand, Cummins was not a skilled enough striker to threaten his foe. Since the only real threat he offers is the takedown, “OSP” could afford to miss on a few looping uppercuts before finding his target (GIF).
Defensively, St. Preux has some seriously flaws that his length has thus far allowed him to (mostly) get away with. His hands stray far from his chin, and St. Preux’s head movement and footwork aren’t good enough to make up for this. Worse still, when he swings wildly, his chin often comes up into the air.
Wrestling
A state runner up in high school, “OSP” has shown a solid mix of physicality and technique in wrestling exchanges. Both offensively and defensively, St. Preux is an above average wrestler.
Though he doesn’t often set it up well, St. Preux has a very strong double leg takedown. He speedily runs through the shot, which is a very popular style of shot for MMA. Notably, he managed to land the double on Ryan Bader several times, changing levels directly after escaping from his back and catching his opponent off-guard.
In the clinch, St. Preux’s strength shines through. He’s able to manipulate his opponent’s body around even when he’s at a disadvantage in terms of leverage. Once he secures his grip and pushes his opponent against the cage, “OSP” will look for an inside trip or simply muscle his opponent to the mat.
From the top position, St. Preux is at his most dangerous. His length allows him to create great amounts of power without standing or gaining a dominant position, which showed in his knockout of Cody Donovan (GIF). In addition, he’s still quite dangerous when he can stand above his opponent, as he likes to dive into the guard with a big left hand.
When St. Preux sees the takedown coming, he’s a very difficult man to drag to the mat. His sprawl is powerful, and he generally separates well after shutting down the initial attempt. That’s enough to stop the majority of takedowns thrown his way, though he’s much more vulnerable while lunging in with a punch.
Outside of that, St. Preux’s only wrestling issue was fatigue. As he slowed down in his five round battle with Bader, the All-American wrestler was repeatedly able to out-work “OSP” even after his initial shot was stuffed. Since St. Preux is using so much energy to explode and work out of bad positions, it’s a very difficult style to maintain.
To his credit, St. Preux’s ability to work back to his feet early on is quite impressive. At times, he’ll turtle and simply stand up as if his opponent isn’t trying to hold him down. Alternatively, St. Preux will look for the switch or attempt to wall-walk back up to his feet. Against Cummins, “OSP” was extremely effective at springing back to his feet after being taken down, as he never allowed Cummins to establish top position.
Perhaps that would’ve changed as St. Preux fatigued, but he skipped that part by knocking out “Durkin” inside the first round.
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
There’s not a lot to analyze on St. Preux’s offensive jiu-jitsu. While he has some interesting submissions on his record, including a calf slicer, “OSP” is not usually the one looking to initiate the takedown and generally prefers ground strikes when he does.
From the top, St. Preux seems pretty solid with his guard passing. Once he’s standing over his opponent, he does a decent job mixing in attempts to throw the legs by with his punches. Plus, he transitions well in dominant positions, rarely giving his opponent — other than Gegard Mousasi and his excellent jiu-jitsu — an opportunity to reverse position.
In his bout with Nikita Krylov, St. Preux managed to pull off a nasty Von Flue choke. After taking down the Ukranian submission specialist, St. Preux was threatened by the guillotine. “OSP” defended by moving into side control on the opposite side of the choke, but Krylov held onto the submission. This allowed St. Preux to drop his shoulder into Krylov’s neck, trapping his hands in place and allowing St. Preux to finish the Von Flue choke (GIF).
Losses to Ryan Bader and Glover Teixeira have shown that St. Preux is not much of a bottom grappler. While he’s definitely capable of scrambling up to his feet, St. Preux’s guard was passed by both men multiple times and he repeatedly ended up in dominant positions.
While Bader was not really able to capitalize, the Brazilian was. In the first couple rounds, St. Preux was able to force his way out of mount and back mount, but that took a toll on his conditioning. By the third, his energy was gone, and St. Preux had no real path to escape from the rear naked choke.
Conclusion
This is an insane opportunity for Ovince St. Preux. Frankly, it wasn’t clear how “OSP” could climb the ladder following his loss to Teixeira, as that was another example of him coming up short against the division’s elite. Instead of needing a long win streak to return to this position, St. Preux fell into it by default and now has the chance to both take out the division’s king and take home a belt for his troubles.
*****
Andrew Richardson, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu purple belt, is an undefeated amateur fighter who trains at Team Alpha Male in Sacramento, California. In addition to learning alongside world-class talent, Andrew has scouted opponents and developed winning strategies for several of the sport’s most elite fighters.