Ovince Saint Preux Gets New Opponent for UFC Fight Night 104, John Phillips Out

Ovince Saint Preux will no longer fight Jan Blachowicz at UFC Fight Night 104.

Saint Preux will instead welcome UFC newbie Volkan Oezdemir to the promotion,  according to a word from UFC officials on Friday.

‘O.S.P’ makes his first return since a knockout loss to Jimi Manuwa at October’s UFC 204. Saint Preux’s second straight loss followed his ‘L’ to banned, former champ Jon Jones. Oezdemir is a promising 12-1 as a professional fighter, with his only blemish coming via Kelly Anundson at Bellator 115 in 2014, but has only fought three times since that particular year.

There have been two other changes announced, and they relate to Welshman John Phillips has been removed from his UFC debut against Marcos Rogerio de Lima at UFC on FOX 23. Jeremy Kimball will instead make his debut against the Brazilian.

Garreth McLellan, as previously covered, will also be replacing a fighter. The South African stands in for Alex Nicholson to fight another new fighter in Paulo Henrique Costa at UFC Fight Night 106 in March.

Ovince Saint Preux will no longer fight Jan Blachowicz at UFC Fight Night 104.

Saint Preux will instead welcome UFC newbie Volkan Oezdemir to the promotion,  according to a word from UFC officials on Friday.

‘O.S.P’ makes his first return since a knockout loss to Jimi Manuwa at October’s UFC 204. Saint Preux’s second straight loss followed his ‘L’ to banned, former champ Jon Jones. Oezdemir is a promising 12-1 as a professional fighter, with his only blemish coming via Kelly Anundson at Bellator 115 in 2014, but has only fought three times since that particular year.

There have been two other changes announced, and they relate to Welshman John Phillips has been removed from his UFC debut against Marcos Rogerio de Lima at UFC on FOX 23. Jeremy Kimball will instead make his debut against the Brazilian.

Garreth McLellan, as previously covered, will also be replacing a fighter. The South African stands in for Alex Nicholson to fight another new fighter in Paulo Henrique Costa at UFC Fight Night 106 in March.

Video: Glover Teixeira vs. Ovince Saint Preux From UFC Fight Night 73 (Full Fight)

https://youtu.be/CVIrJb5Foz8

Ahead of next Saturday’s highly-anticipated UFC 202 pay-per-view, UFC has released yet another “UFC 202 Free Fight.”

Featured above is the complete Glover Teixeira vs. Ovince Saint Preux fight from August 8, 2015. The…

glover-teixeira-vs-osp

https://youtu.be/CVIrJb5Foz8

Ahead of next Saturday’s highly-anticipated UFC 202 pay-per-view, UFC has released yet another “UFC 202 Free Fight.”

Featured above is the complete Glover Teixeira vs. Ovince Saint Preux fight from August 8, 2015. The fight, which served as the main event of the UFC Fight Night 73 show that aired live on FOX Sports 1, saw Teixeira force OSP to tap out to a rear naked choke in the third round.

At next weekend’s UFC 202 pay-per-view, Teixeira fights fellow dangerous striker Anthony “Rumble” Johnson in one of the co-featured bouts of the show, which will feature the 170-pound rematch between Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz in the main event.

UFC 202: Diaz vs. McGregor 2 takes place on Saturday, August 20, 2016 from the new T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Join us here at MMANews.com on 8/20 for live coverage of the UFC 202 PPV!

UFC 204 Picks Up Jimi Manuwa-Ovince Saint Preux, Stefan Struve-Ruslan Magomedov

According to a report by MMA Fighting, two more bouts have been set for UFC 204, as Jimi Manuwa takes on Ovince Saint Preux and Stefan Struve battles Ruslan Magomedov.

Manuwa (15-2) has yet to fight this year as he has been recovering from an injury…

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According to a report by MMA Fighting, two more bouts have been set for UFC 204, as Jimi Manuwa takes on Ovince Saint Preux and Stefan Struve battles Ruslan Magomedov.

Manuwa (15-2) has yet to fight this year as he has been recovering from an injury. In his last appearance, he was knocked out by top contender Anthony Johnson.

Saint Preux (19-8) stepped in on short notice and fought Jon Jones for the interim UFC light heavyweight title in April, losing via decision. He has recovered from a broken arm suffered early in that fight.

Struve (27-8) knocked out Antonio Silva in 16 seconds this past May, while Magomedov (14-1) is on a nine-fight win streak.

UFC 204 takes place October 8 from England and is expected to feature Michael Bisping defending his middleweight belt vs. Dan Henderson.

Ovince Saint Preux Wants The Truth From Jon Jones

Add former opponent Ovince Saint Preux to the growing list of people that want answers from Jon Jones.

In light of the recent news that Jones was taking post-cycle therapy drugs ahead of UFC 200, Saint Preux is asking him to come forward and come cl…

jones-saint-preux-ufc-197

Add former opponent Ovince Saint Preux to the growing list of people that want answers from Jon Jones.

In light of the recent news that Jones was taking post-cycle therapy drugs ahead of UFC 200, Saint Preux is asking him to come forward and come clean with anything he was on before the two fought.

Jones won that fight via decision, setting him up for the UFC 200 bout vs. Daniel Cormier that was canceled.

Here’s what OSP had to say on his official Facebook page:

On June 18th, Jon Jones was caught taking Post Cycle Therapy (PCT) drugs. This means he was on some form of Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDS) before this date. The only real questions are: When did he start taking them? Was it before his fight with me or after?
There are not many people who can answer this question, but Jon Jones is one of them. So, I am asking: When did you start taking PEDS Jon? I wanted to fight the best fighter in the world, but I did not sign up to fight a cheater. So, be a stand-up person, tell us all the truth.
We all know you were on PEDS because you got caught taking PCT drugs. Just tell the world the truth.

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”

The post Coach: For Jones, Cormier Will Be Easier Fight Than St. Preux appeared first on LowKick MMA.

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.

 

 

The post Coach: For Jones, Cormier Will Be Easier Fight Than St. Preux appeared first on LowKick MMA.

Daniel Cormier On Jon Jones’ UFC 197 Performance: “This Is The New Jon”

daniel-cormier-break-bones

When Daniel Cormier steps into the Octagon in the UFC 200 light heavyweight title unification main event against former champion Jon Jones, he feels he will be competing against a different man than the one who beat him back in January of 2015.

Cormier explained at the recent UFC 200 press conference that in his UFC 197 fight against Ovince Saint Preux, the world saw the “new Jon Jones.”

“I think this is Jon, this is the new Jon, this is Jon Jones with all the muscle,” Cormier said on The MMA Hour. “This is Jon Jones that likes to lift weights, who’s a big guy that’s cutting weight and can’t rehyrdate the old way under USADA rules. This is Jon Jones in the real world today, so when we fight in July he’s going to look the same.”

According to D.C., he saw seeds of doubt in Jones’ mind when he wasn’t able to put away OSP inside the distance at UFC 197.

‘He’s going to have questions. And he’s going to question himself, and you could see him processing things inside the cage. He’ll go home now and he’ll wonder, guess what bud, that’s who you are now. That’s how he’ll look to July when I’m kicking your ass.”

While Jones claimed that the short notice change in opponent was the reason he couldn’t get the finish inside the Octagon, Cormier isn’t buying it.

“You know from a guy that again said ‘I want to thank my Lord and Savior for getting me here,’ then flipped me off two minutes later, you understand he flip flops,” Cormier said. “In the Octagon he said the issue was he prepared to fight me and Ovince is a southpaw. If you watch the fight, OSP was fighting conventional almost the entire time.”

Cormier vs. Jones II headlines the landmark UFC 200 event on Saturday, July 9, 2016 at the brand new T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

H/T to MMAFighting.com for transcribing the above quotes.

daniel-cormier-break-bones

When Daniel Cormier steps into the Octagon in the UFC 200 light heavyweight title unification main event against former champion Jon Jones, he feels he will be competing against a different man than the one who beat him back in January of 2015.

Cormier explained at the recent UFC 200 press conference that in his UFC 197 fight against Ovince Saint Preux, the world saw the “new Jon Jones.”

“I think this is Jon, this is the new Jon, this is Jon Jones with all the muscle,” Cormier said on The MMA Hour. “This is Jon Jones that likes to lift weights, who’s a big guy that’s cutting weight and can’t rehyrdate the old way under USADA rules. This is Jon Jones in the real world today, so when we fight in July he’s going to look the same.”

According to D.C., he saw seeds of doubt in Jones’ mind when he wasn’t able to put away OSP inside the distance at UFC 197.

‘He’s going to have questions. And he’s going to question himself, and you could see him processing things inside the cage. He’ll go home now and he’ll wonder, guess what bud, that’s who you are now. That’s how he’ll look to July when I’m kicking your ass.”

While Jones claimed that the short notice change in opponent was the reason he couldn’t get the finish inside the Octagon, Cormier isn’t buying it.

“You know from a guy that again said ‘I want to thank my Lord and Savior for getting me here,’ then flipped me off two minutes later, you understand he flip flops,” Cormier said. “In the Octagon he said the issue was he prepared to fight me and Ovince is a southpaw. If you watch the fight, OSP was fighting conventional almost the entire time.”

Cormier vs. Jones II headlines the landmark UFC 200 event on Saturday, July 9, 2016 at the brand new T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

H/T to MMAFighting.com for transcribing the above quotes.