Ovince Saint Preux has made his career in the UFC’s light-heavyweight division, but he’s taking a step up to heavyweight for his next fight against Ben Rothwell in Florida on May 13th.
“… I don’t choose my fights,” OSP told MMAJunkie when asked about his thinking regarding the move up in weight. “My head trainer, Eric Turner, always chooses the fights. He does more of the contact with my manager Oren (Hodak). Oren told him, ‘Hey, look: (Ben) Rothwell lost his opponent.’ Eric was like, ‘Yeah that’s a good matchup for us.’”
As for his weight come fight night, OSP acknowledges that he’s going to be significantly lighter than Rothwell.
“In the beginning of April, I was walking around 227 or 226,” Saint Preux said. “The weight cut was going to be no problem. Now, I’m probably sitting around 230, 232. When fight time comes around, if I carb load, I might be around 235, 236 – around there.
“… It will definitely be a different experience just for the simple fact of the size and stuff. Typically when I enter the cage, I’m usually the bigger fighter. There were only a couple occasions where I wasn’t. If I’m not the bigger fighter, I usually feel like the stronger fighter. It’s just going to be a lot different this time. With him cutting down to 265, the next day he might be 275 or almost 280. I’m going to have to stay on my wheels. … If I avoid the big shots, I think I’ll be OK.”
Saint Preux, who is coming off a win, but has gone 2-3 overall in his last five fights at 205lbs, says his foray into the heavyweight ranks isn’t going to be forever though.
“It’s definitely not permanent. If there’s an opportunity for me to bounce up and down, I’ll definitely do that.”
