Tag: OSP

With ‘OSP’ Out, Johnny Walker Wants Misha Cirkunov At UFC 235

UFC 235 is shaping up to be one of the biggest cards of the year. However, one light heavyweight contest just lost one of its competitors. Former interim 205-pound title challenger Ovince Saint Preux has been forced out of his scheduled fight with Misha Cirkunov due to an injury. As a result, rising light heavyweight […]

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UFC 235 is shaping up to be one of the biggest cards of the year.

However, one light heavyweight contest just lost one of its competitors. Former interim 205-pound title challenger Ovince Saint Preux has been forced out of his scheduled fight with Misha Cirkunov due to an injury. As a result, rising light heavyweight prospect Johnny Walker wants to pounce on the opportunity.

Walker comes off a big 15-second knockout win over Justin Ledet at UFC on ESPN+ 2 from Brazil. After having a fight with Jimi Manuwa at UFC London denied, Walker now looks to face Cirkunov in Vegas. He posted the following on Instagram:

“Hey @mishac911 , I heard you need a new opponent for UFC 235? I might know someone… @ufc@danawhite I am waiting for the call”

The card already features two high-profile title bouts. UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones will defend his strap against Anthony Smith in the main event. It will be “Bones’” first title defense since 2015. In the co-main event, Tyron Woodley will defend his welterweight title yet again. He’ll face Kamaru Usman, who has been making huge strides at 170 pounds.

UFC 235 goes down live on pay-per-view (PPV) from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on March 2, 2019.

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Five Biggest Takeaways From UFC Singapore

We broke down the five biggest takeaways from today’s UFC Singapore:

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The UFC put on a decent regional card for those who were willing to get up early on a Saturday morning with today’s (June 23, 2018) UFC Fight Night 132 from the Singapore Indoor Stadium in Kallang, Singapore.

While not the strongest card on paper, UFC Singapore ended up delivering some great fights. The promotion has been making inroads in the Asian MMA market, and Saturday morning seems to have been a successful venture in that aspect.

Let’s once again break down the five biggest takeaways after another UFC card:

5. UFC’s Asian Market Is Expanding And Progressing:

The UFC has been aggressive in their international expansion, announcing events in Russia and always making inroads in the Asian MMA market.

Saturday’s event in Singapore appears to show some progress in the region, with all the regional fighters delivering solid performances.

And the media attention for what amounted to be a very weak card on paper seemed almost disproportionate, as the card got a good deal of coverage.

So far, the UFC’s offerings in Asia have been, extremely top heavy to put it charitably. Former UFC champion Holly Holm headlined a card on the continent, and on Saturday former title contender Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone carried the show, but that’s about where the name recognition stops.

The amount of attention these weaker international cards still seem to get shows that should the UFC put together a more complete card in the region, it would likely be a rousing success.

Asian MMA talent really showed out on Saturday, and the media attention these weaker international cards are reasons to be enthusiastic if you’re an MMA fan living in Asia.

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Highlights: Ilir Latifi Chokes Ovince Saint Preux Unconscious

On the second fight of the night at UFC on FOX 28 from the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida, Ilir Latifi pulled off an early Submission Of The Year candidate over Ovince Saint Preux. The pair met inside the Octagon and had a feeling out process for the first few minutes. Finally Latifi landed some […]

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On the second fight of the night at UFC on FOX 28 from the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida, Ilir Latifi pulled off an early Submission Of The Year candidate over Ovince Saint Preux.

The pair met inside the Octagon and had a feeling out process for the first few minutes. Finally Latifi landed some huge shots that dropped OSP and rocked him badly. As he attempted to get up Latifi locked in a deep standing guillotine choke. OSP initially tapped, however, the ref didn’t see it and he proceeded to pass out seconds later.

“The Sledgehammer” proceeded to call out UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier, who was handling commentary duties at Octagon-side. Cormier has a date with UFC heavyweight champion Stipe Miocic for the “Baddest Man On The Planet” moniker, so it’s unlikely Latifi will get his shot at “DC” anytime soon. Nonetheless, Latifi put on an impressive performance over a former interim 205-pound title challenger.

With one more big win inside the Octagon it’s not a far fetched idea that we could see the Swede compete for the light heavyweight throne later this year or in early 2019. You can check out Latifi’s amazing submission over OSP here:

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Ilir Latifi Sleeps Ovince Saint Preux With Standing Guillotine

Round 1: Some leg kicks from Latifi early on and neither man is throwing heavy offense. A high kick from Latifi is blocked. OSP is blocking strikes from Latifi while he throws leg kicks. Latifi is able to land a straight left but OSP continues to move …

Round 1: Some leg kicks from Latifi early on and neither man is throwing heavy offense. A high kick from Latifi is blocked. OSP is blocking strikes from Latifi while he throws leg kicks. Latifi is able to land a straight left but OSP continues to move well. An overhand from Latifi drops OSp, he […]

Jon Jones’ Former Opponent Wonders If He Was on Steroids

In light of recent events, former UFC interim light heavyweight championship challenger Ovince Saint Preux (OSP) believes Jon Jones could have been on performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) during their bout against one another at UFC 197 in April of 2016. OSP recently joined Submission Radio to discuss Jones’ recent failed drug test from UFC 214 […]

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In light of recent events, former UFC interim light heavyweight championship challenger Ovince Saint Preux (OSP) believes Jon Jones could have been on performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) during their bout against one another at UFC 197 in April of 2016.

OSP recently joined Submission Radio to discuss Jones’ recent failed drug test from UFC 214 this past July and said he ‘of course’ believes Jones was on PEDs when they fought (quotes via Bloody Elbow):

“I mean, of course,” OSP said. “I did an article a while back saying, I just wanted him to tell the truth. But at the end of the day, with me, I just wanted to know. But at the end of the day, what can I do about it? It’s a situation where I’ve learned, especially like my fight when I fought Volkan. You know, I walked in the locker room and I caught myself screaming, and I was like, ‘Why am I mad for?’ I did everything I did, I poured my heart out in the fight. I trained hard, I felt like I won the fight. Like I said, I out-landed him by over 50 punches.

“But at the end of the day, after that I looked at my trainer, I was like, ‘I’m back in the gym Monday, we need to find a fight, it’s on to the next one.’ By then, my mindset was already onto the next one. And at the end of the day, when anything happens, everything comes out to light eventually. You can’t hold onto the same thing over and over again, everything always comes out to light.”

When asked if knowing whether or not Jones was on PEDs during their fight last year would give him closure on the loss, OSP couldn’t quite put his finger on it:

“Maybe, maybe not,” OSP said. “Cause at the end of the day it’s like, can I dwell on it? Yeah. But if I was dwelling on it, I’m holding onto the past and there’s no reason for me to do that. So my mindset is always going to be to be like, I’m here in the present, concentrate on present. Cause whatever is gonna put me in the present, however I perceive myself right now, then the future’s gonna be that much better. I can’t perceive myself the way I did in the past and whatnot, especially me getting down on myself. And that’s another form of mental skills training where that comes in the head. I gotta end up elevating my mind a lot more.”

If the opportunity once again arose for Saint Preux to step into the Octagon against “Bones” once again, however, the University Of Tennessee alumni wouldn’t necessarily rule out the possibility:

“Not necessarily,” OSP said. “Because at the end of the day, as much scrutiny as he’s been under, especially these past two years and what not, I would say he’s walking a tightrope. And even if the results come back negative, he’s still gonna have that bubble of people that’s gonna be like, ‘We still don’t like you,’ or, ‘We still think you’re this bad guy.’ But at the end of the day, even if it comes back negative, you know how much scrutiny he’s gonna be or how many eyes are gonna be on him? Do you know how much times USADA might pop up at his house?

“It’s one of those things where, okay, it came positive – if something comes back positive and they do sample B and it comes back negative, they’re gonna actually keep more eyes on you just for the simple fact that it’s one of those things where, ‘We need to figure out how this happened, because this was just positive, now it’s negative. Something went wrong there.’ So they’re gonna dial in him a lot more anyway. But if it comes back positive, I mean shoot, he’s gone for the next two to three years.”

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Coach: For Jones, Cormier Will Be Easier Fight Than St. Preux

Taking a fight on short notice is never an easy thing to do, even if you are the consensus best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. So now that Jon “Bones” Jones and his coaches can rest assured they know who will be staring back across at him from the other side of the Octagon, “Team Bones”

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Taking a fight on short notice is never an easy thing to do, even if you are the consensus best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. So now that Jon “Bones” Jones and his coaches can rest assured they know who will be staring back across at him from the other side of the Octagon, “Team Bones” can enter into this championship bout, slated for UFC 200 on July 9, 2016, with the poise and confidence we’ve all become accustomed to seeing.

According to Mike Winkeljohn, Jones’ head coach at the renowned Jackson-Wink fight team, this familiar feeling of sufficient preparation is certainly going to make “Bones’” rematch with his increasingly bitter rival a much easier path to walk.

“We’ve already got the game plan put together – now it’s almost easier in some ways, because we continue working it.”

It’s hard to argue with that sentiment, seeing that Jones was still able to dominate the awkward and the oft difficult-to-prepare-for Ovince St. Preux on short notice after his original opponent, current UFC light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier, pulled out of their scheduled UFC 197 fight due to a leg injury.

“Bones” admitted that his coaches had advised against taking the bout on such short notice, and Winkeljohn in particular said “OSP” would pose some issues with his physical stature and awkward stand-up style, but that didn’t appear to be much of a problem, as Jones handled the tough, athletic former University of Tennessee Volunteers football standout with relative ease.

However, now that Jones and company can get back to their usual routine and preparation, especially for an opponent against whom “Bones” has already competed and soundly beaten, Coach “Wink” has a sneaking suspicion that this trip to the Octagon is going to be a different story than was the ill-prepared scrap with “OSP” (even if Cormier himself may not think so).

“We’ve been training for it for a while, so I think it’s going to be an easier fight [than OSP was] for Jon…Jon is going to hit him with some really, really, really hard elbows.”

Somewhere in the United States, Brandon Vera is shuddering to himself, still haunted by the devastating elbow delivered by a 22 year old soon-to-be champion that nearly cracked the entire right side of his skull.

So if “DC” has learned anything from his previous meeting with Jones, and the rest of the bodies that “Bones’” has left in his wake, he’ll spend his night inside that Octagon on July 9 with his hands up, his chin down and his head and neck as far away as humanly possible from Jones’ terrifying clinch.

But no matter what, barring any injuries or visits to the Albuquerque police station, it’s safe to say that this much anticipated rematch between the consensus top two light heavyweights in the world will not disappoint.

 

 

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