Ovince Saint Preux defeats Rafael Cavalcante at UFC Fight Night 82
The sixth-ranked UFC Light Heavyweight contender and former Tennessee Volunteer linebacker, Ovince Saint Preux, faced off with 13th-ranked contender Rafael Cavalcante at UFC Fight Night 82 in the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
Photo by Mark Richardson, courtesy of creativecommons.org. No changes made.
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The sixth-ranked UFC Light Heavyweight contender and former Tennessee Volunteer linebacker, Ovince Saint Preux, faced off with 13th-ranked contender Rafael Cavalcante at UFC Fight Night 82 in the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
The first round started off slow, with both fighters trying to find their range. After landing a leg kick midway through the opening round, Saint Preux began to limp noticeably. Cavalcante saw the weakness and began to attack the leg, but Saint Preux recovered before the bell and landed a huge left that rocked Cavalcante to the canvas. The knockdown arguably gave Saint Preux the round.
Despite being injured, Saint Preux’s dominance carried over to the second round, where he continued to use his long legs to attack Rafael from distance. Cavalcante managed to land a nice left, but was soon hit by some nice combinations from Saint Preux. After one of them, Cavalcante lost his balance, and was once again sent to the mat by Saint Preux at the two-minute mark of the second round. The final two minutes of the round consisted of Saint Preux landing some nice ground and pound from Cavalcante’s guard. After the round, Cavalcante appeared to have lost the will to win.
The final round started off with a faster tempo than the previous two, with both fighters throwing and landing nice strikes. However, the total strike numbers for the whole fight began to add up for Saint Preux, who had a 70-13 advantage on that number a minute into the third round. Shortly after the first minute, Saint Preux landed a take down and started to attack from the top. A clearly-defeated Cavalcante was almost refusing to fight, and made no effort to get up from his submissive position. Saint Preux took advantage and ended the fight with a flurry that, if not for the bell, would have ended the fight with a finish. It was the most dominant round for Saint Preux.
In a pretty clear decision, the judges scored the contest 30-27, 30-27, and 29-28 all in favor of Saint Preux.
The win sets him up for a fight with a top five contender, most likely a rematch with Glover Teixiera, who beat Saint Preux last fall in Nashville. A title shot could be in the cards for Saint Preux in the near future.
Featured image by Mark Richardson
Edited by Cody McClure
Freshman studying Journalism and Electronic Media at UTK. Has appeared on several radio broadcasts, and even put out a podcast episode of his own once upon a time. Somehow is not clinically depressed, despite being a lifelong die hard Clippers and Volunteers fan.
