Ovince Saint Preux feels home at 205, but not ruling out a return to heavyweight

Ovince Saint Preux’s experiment with heavyweight is not over yet.

After getting edged out in his heavyweight debut against Ben Rothwell in May, Saint Preux (25-14 MMA, 13-9 UFC) moved back down to 205 pounds and scored a knockout of Alonzo Menifield at UFC on ESPN+ 34.

But despite returning to his original weight class, the former UFC interim light heavyweight title challenger is still open to competing at heavyweight.

“Even with the heavyweight division and dabbling with all that, I can definitely do it again,” Saint Preux told MMA Junkie. “I would do it again. It’s crazy too, my first fight bumping up to heavyweight, I fought the most durable heavyweight pretty much in UFC history, and I think I did exceptionally well with him. If opportunity presented itself, I’ll jump back up to heavyweight too, but 205 is my home, it’s always been my home, and I’m feeling good at 205.

“As long as I can keep myself feeling the way I’ve been feeling the past month and a half, I’m gonna be good. Even when I get back to Knoxville, I’m right back at the gym. I’m just gonna make sure I’m dialing in on my diet and make sure my weight is staying low instead of floating back up to almost 240, 245.”

Saint Preux, who’s finished 20 of his 25 pro wins, has proven his ability to finish fights both on the feet and on the ground. He went all three rounds with Rothwell and was surprised at how durable he was.

At heavyweight, Saint Preux knows he’ll have to be a lot more strategic since they won’t go down as easily as the light heavyweights.

“The thing about heavyweight is you don’t have to cut weight, but the only thing about heavyweight that you gotta think about is, light heavyweight hit hard, heavyweights hit harder,” Saint Preux said. “Even Ben, when I fought him, I was like some of the shots that I hit him with, I was like come on, man. I’m looking and he falls down and comes back up, and I was like come on, you gotta be kidding me. The 205’ers, those type of hits would put somebody down.”