Less than a year ago, No. 6-ranked light heavyweight competitor Ovince St. Preux was essentially dominated and finished by former title challenger Glover Teixeira in the main event of UFC Fight Night 73.
He has since bounce backed with a rather forgetful decision victory over Rafael Cavalcante at February’s UFC Fight Night 82.
Despite not necessarily making any major statements recently, OSP will now take on the reigning pound-for-pound king, and a man many consider to be the greatest fighter of all-time in Jon “Bones” Jones at April 23’s UFC 197 for the interim 205-pound strap.
St. Preux was given the opportunity of a lifetime after current divisional kingpin Daniel Cormier suffered an injury last week.
While many have already counted him out, St. Preux actually feels as if much of the pressure lies on Jones, who hasn’t competed in well over a year, in the upcoming bout.
In fact, the former collegiate football player feels as if he can hang with the division’s elite:
“(The interim-championship title) adds a little more pressure,” Saint Preux told MMA Junkie. “Not to me, but to him. In a situation like that, what do you have to lose?
“At times, I feel I do better on short notice,” Saint Preux said. “It’s going to get a little hectic in the next two, three weeks. But at least it wasn’t like that for the last three or four months, so I don’t have to do any adjustments at all. All the adjustment’s on (Jones). You look at me, and I’m a pretty good fighter. I can hold my own with the best of them.”
Despite currently standing a step below the division’s upper echelon, OSP is indeed a freak athlete, and a very powerful one at that.
With that being said, St. Preux even went as far as to say that he has the ability to put Jones away if an opportunity were to present itself:
“I might not put you away, but you’re going to feel it, and your knees are going to buckle. And if I hit you with a third one, it will put you away. That’s the happy medium I’ve been working on,” Saint Preux said. “Guys like that, you break them out of their pattern, and that’s what I intend to do. If I have the opportunity to finish him, I’m going to go ahead and take that opportunity. I guarantee you, he knows, as well as his camp knows, I can do that if the opportunity presents itself.
“He’s a beast, and I’m a beast, too. We both can do some beast (expletive).”
Are you giving OSP any chance against “Bones” in Las Vegas?
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