Ovince St. Preux stunned Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua last night in the main event of UFC Fight Night 56 with a 36 second technical knockout that sent a clear message that it’s time for the MMA legend to retire.
A late replacement for Jimi Manuwa, OSP doesn’t look overawed by facing the former light-heavyweight champion in his own backyard in Brazil.
The fight begins and OSP lands first with a push kick to the body that knocks Shogun of balance a little as he was in the process of throwing a kick himself. St. Preux then uncorks another kick, to the side of the body this time.
Shogun with a strong leg kick in return. He looks to press forward with a flurry of punches, but gets clipped with a perfect fade-away left hook counter on the way in and falls to the mat.
He turns and is sat looking dazed with his back against the cage as OSP stands over him and starts hammering down repeated left hands to his face. Rua slumps down after the first one, then props back up on an elbow, but he looks like he barely knows where he is and isn’t making any effort to defend these flush shots to the face.
The referee ends it, OSP has defeated Shogun by TKO and stunned the crowd into silence in the process. St. Preux only took 36 seconds to defeat him – a huge feather in his cap and with just one win in his last five fights, surely Rua must now seriously consider retiring from the sport.
