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#2 UFC Light Heavyweight Division: Ovince St. Preux vs. Alonzo Menifield

Ovince St. Preux is moving back to 205lbs this weekend, ending his brief foray at Heavyweight

This is a strange fight for a UFC co-main event, so it should come as no surprise to learn that it’s been thrown together by the promotion on relatively late notice. St. Preux was initially pegged to face Russia’s Shamil Gamzatov here, but travel restrictions have reared their head, giving us this clash instead.

The last time we saw OSP in the UFC was back in May. A strange move up to Heavyweight saw him face the much larger Ben Rothwell, but despite fighting well at points, the judges weren’t enamored with his more defensive gameplan. Basically, OSP ran away on too many occasions to be called the winner and lost a split decision.

The fight was useful, though, mainly to show that contrary to earlier evidence, OSP’s chin is still pretty decent. In his fights with the likes of Dominick Reyes, Tyson Pedro, Michal Oleksiejczuk, and Ilir Latifi, it appeared that his ability to absorb damage was finally starting to go. Against the heavy-handed Rothwell though, St. Preux’s chin held up well.

He’ll need that chin in this fight, as Menifield is a ridiculously hard puncher. A graduate of Dana White’s Contender Series, Menifield came into the UFC in 2019 with a 7-0 record, winning all but one of those fights via KO or TKO. And that run continued with vicious knockouts of Vinicius Moreira and Paul Craig in the UFC proper.

However, just as it looked like we had a prospect to really watch at 205lbs, the wheels came off. At UFC 250, Menifield hit Devin Clark with his usual foray of bombs, but despite closing his left eye up, he was unable to put ‘The Brown Bear’ away. The fight ticked into the second round for just the third time in Menifield’s career, and suddenly, he became vulnerable. A few minutes later, he’d suffered the first loss of his career, as Clark was able to bully him around from the clinch and on the ground as his gas tank was thoroughly emptied.

Basically then, this fight should come down to a simple question: can OSP survive the barrage that Menifield is almost guaranteed to throw at him in the first round? If he can’t, then Menifield will pick up the biggest win of his UFC career to date. But if St. Preux can stay in the fight, then there’s little doubt that he’ll be able to outwork and probably submit the prospect.

Personally, I’m leaning towards OSP here. Sure, he’s taken plenty of losses – nine in the UFC alone – but despite looking a little chinny in recent years, the only man to stop him in the Octagon with strikes was Jimi Manuwa, a far better technical striker than Menifield.

The likes of Reyes, Rothwell, and Oleksiejczuk on the other hand were unable to finish him, and while Menifield hits hard, does he really hit harder than a massive Heavyweight like Rothwell? It’s doubtful.

Given OSP surely knows that by avoiding the rush, he should be able to win this one, I can’t see him standing and trading with Menifield. And based on his fight with Clark at UFC 250, it’s hard to imagine that Menifield could’ve made the right adjustments in time to win here. I’m taking OSP via second-round submission.

The Pick: St. Preux via second-round submission