Ovince Saint Preux was relaxed and 'felt like a straight savage' before UFC Fight Night 108 win

UFC light heavyweight Ovince Saint Preux admits he gets nervous before stepping inside the octagon. And it happened again before his UFC Fight Night 108 bout vs. Marcos Rogerio de Lima.

Except this time was different.

Saint Preux said in an interview with MMAjunkie Radio that nerves always kick in as he warms up in his locker room. And usually that nervous feeling stays with him even after. That wasn’t the case last week.

“I was straight focused,” Saint Preux said. “I felt like a straight savage.”

It showed as Saint Preux would put on an impressive performance in submitting Lima with a Von Flue choke, the second time in his UFC career that he’s pulled of the choke for the win.

So what clicked heading into this fight compared to Saint Preux’s previous three, which all ended in defeat? A simple, better understanding of the mental aspect of fighting, he said, and knowing that his physical abilities alone can get him only so far.

“I’ve got to make sure I’m mentally in tune to everything,” Saint Preux said.
“You can have all the physically attributes, but if you’re not there mentally, you’re going to break apart. …

“With combat sports, a lot of it has to do with mental. You get people like Floyd Mayweather, Conor McGregor. Conor McGregor, he gets in your head before the fight even happens. By the time the fight happens, he doesn’t worry about anything. He just breaks you down mentally, and when he breaks you down mentally, you’re going to go in there and lose the fight, because you lost your head. He did that to Jose Aldo and Eddie Alvarez.”

Saint Preux, 34, has been near the top before. He fought for the interim light heavyweight title in 2016 but lost to Jon Jones, which set off a three-fight losing streak before the win over Lima. After experiencing the downturn and rebounding, Saint Preux feels he’s on the right path with the changes he’s made.

“The thing between being in the top 15 and the top 10 is, you don’t have to completely … you can BS in some parts of your mixed-martial arts career,” he said. “You can come into a fight a little heavy, you can kind of BS that. But if you look at the top five, those guys stay within that realm because you have to turn that into a lifestyle. You have to be completely dedicated to it. And it’s not necessarily just during the fight or training camp. It’s all day every day.”

Count Saint Preux in on the lifestyle change.

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