With UFC Fight Night 197 looming on the horizon this coming Saturday night in Las Vegas the line-up has taken a hit with the news that Ovince Saint Preux is out of his main card heavyweight clash with Philipe Lins.
MMAjunkie confirmed the news via a personal with knowledge of the withdrawal, but no mention was made of exactly why he won’t be able to compete.
OSP had been coming in on two tough losses in a row, having been TKO’d by Jamahal Hill last December and then followed that up with a knockout defeat against Tanner Boser in June.
That leaves the 38-year-old Saint Preux with six losses from his last 10 fights as he alternates between light-heavyweight and heavyweight without finding the kind of consistency that’s been hard to come by since the early days of his UFC run back in 2013-2014.
As for Lins, he was also seeking to get back to winning ways after having his only two fights in the UFC so far,, including a unanimous decision defeat to Andrei Arlovski in May of last year and then being KO’d by Tanner Boser a month later.
At this stage it’s not clear whether Lins will remain on the card against a short-notice replacement for an event that’s set to be headlined by featherweight action as Max Holloway fights Yair Rodriguez.