At 40 years old, Ovince Saint Preux still has some fight left in him.
The veteran light heavyweight competitor bounced back from a loss in his last outing to earn a split decision victory over Kennedy Nzechukwu in a slugfest at UFC Vegas 88. Saint Preux managed to score the only knockdown in the fight before engaging in a back-and-forth war with Nzechukwu in the third round before ultimately getting the nod on the scorecards.
Two judges scored the fight 29-28 for Saint Preux with the third official giving the same 29-28 score to Nzechukwu but that was still enough for the one-time interim light heavyweight title challenger to get the win.
“Just stand in front of his face,” Saint Preux said about his game plan. “I didn’t expect his jab to be that good. I knew if he stayed in his face, he didn’t do good going backwards. He did a good job. It feels good, I just want to keep on going. I got my hand raised at the end of the night. Anybody can get it [next].”
There was a lot of respect being shown early between the fighters with Saint Preux and Nzechukwu both being cautious about overextending or even launching combinations that could leave them in a precarious position for the other to return fire. Saint Preux showed good forward pressure to prevent Nzechukwu from really setting up his strikes, although both fighters were landing shots at various moments throughout the fight.
The biggest shot from Saint Preux came with a hellacious uppercut that rocked Nzechukwu and sent him down to the canvas momentarily. Saint Preux rushed forward with a barrage but Nzechukwu managed to survive the onslaught and reset on his feet.
In the third round, Nzechukwu knew he had to either get the finish or turn things around to ensure he got the win so he really started throwing caution to the wind and blasting away with punches. Saint Preux happily met him in the middle of the cage and stood toe-to-toe with him as they just hammered each other with everything left in the arsenal.
When it was over, Saint Preux’s knockdown and the accumulated strikes he connected with over three rounds helped him get the nod as he returns to the win column and moves to 2-1 in his past three fights.
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