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#2 UFC Light-Heavyweight Division: Ovince St. Preux vs. Alonzo Menifield
This fight was initially put together by the UFC for the Edgar vs. Munhoz card on August 22nd, only for it to fall apart on the day of the show. Worryingly, the reason for the cancellation was a positive COVID-19 test for St. Preux, and given this past weekend’s events, there’s every reason to suspect it’ll be cancelled again.
When you consider that two weeks wasn’t enough to allow Ion Cutelaba to be COVID-free following a positive test, will it really be enough time for OSP? Who knows. Evidently the UFC believes he’ll be okay, but we’ll see come the weekend as he'll obviously be tested at least one more time.
At any rate, in my previous breakdown for the fight, I was siding with St. Preux. He has far more UFC experience than Menifield and has beaten the likes of Tyson Pedro, Nikita Krylov and Michal Oleksiejczuk. And while he lost his most recent UFC outing to Ben Rothwell, his chin held up well against the larger man’s power.
In fact, OSP has only been stopped by strikes once in the UFC – by the hard-hitting Jimi Manuwa back in 2017.
Menifield probably hits just as hard as Manuwa. An incredible athletic talent, he came into the UFC from Dana White’s Contender Series in 2019 and quickly reeled off two brutal knockouts of Vinicius Moreira and Paul Craig.
However, his hype train was well and truly stalled by Devin Clark at UFC 250. ‘The Brown Bear’ survived his early barrage and was able to wear him out, bully him from the clinch and work him over on the ground for a decision.
As I suggested before, I suspect that as long as OSP can survive Menifield’s early barrage, then he should be able to win this one. Other UFC fighters have hurt him with a crude rush – Ilir Latifi for instance knocked him down with clubbing punches before submitting him – but he’s a smarter fighter than people think and tougher too.
In the end, I just can’t see him risking a trade with Menifield on the feet, and so I suspect he’ll absorb some punishment before dragging the prospect to the ground to submit him.
The Pick: St. Preux via second-round submission
