Ovince Saint Preux nonetheless works with Tennessee Volunteers

LAS VEGAS – Earlier than he was a UFC mild heavyweight, Ovince Saint Preux was a Tennessee Volunteer – and his nonetheless is, in a way.

A linebacker and defensive finish for the College of Tennessee from 2001 to 2004, Saint Preux (26-17 MMA, 14-12 UFC) nonetheless maintains a relationship with the group twenty years later.

“I’m blessed in a means, simply because early on in my profession, any time I wanted assist, any time I had one thing fallacious with me, even early on after I began, I used to be in a position to primarily go to College of Tennessee and use the trainers that I had and be like, ‘Hey, I’ve this fallacious with me. Are you able to assist me out?’” Saint Preux advised MMA Junkie and different reporters Wednesday. “They’d be like, ‘OK, sit right here. We’ll provide the rundown. Growth, growth, growth, growth. Subsequent, I want you right here twice or three days per week so you may get remedy.’”

However Saint Preux isn’t the one one to learn from his alumnus standing. The Volunteers teaching employees have him converse to the group occasionally, one thing Saint Preux has loved – and so have the gamers.

“The linebacker coach isn’t at UT any extra, however when he was there, he was Haitian. He recruited me out of highschool. So him and I, we have been speaking. He’s like, ‘I would like you to return discuss to our linebackers.’ I’m like, ‘OK, I can come discuss to your linebackers.’ It went from speaking to the linebackers after which two days earlier than I got here to speak, he’s like, ‘Hey, Coach (John) Heupel wants you to return discuss to the group.’ I’m like, ‘What?’ So I needed to discuss to the entire group. It’s humorous as a result of after I walked in there, all people was sort of speaking. They placed on a spotlight video and all people received quiet, which is cool I received their consideration.

“Then, I used to be just about answering questions for the subsequent hour-and-a-half. Heupel needed to cease them from asking questions as a result of he was like, ‘We’ve got to cease as a result of we by no means had this a lot questions requested earlier than.’ I used to be like, ‘All proper, that’s fairly cool.’ However each time I’m going again to the advanced, it’s just about all love. All people sees it as just about all love.”

Saint Preux, 40, is Saturday set to interrupt the file for many mild heavyweight appearances in promotion historical past (25) when he faces Kennedy Nzechukwu (12-4 MMA, 6-4 UFC) at UFC Combat Night time 239 on the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.

Even in any case these years (and all these video games) OSP feels good – and that’s massive partly to his alma mater.

“I used to be nonetheless ready to make use of their weight room, chilly plunge, trainers, all people,” Saint Preux mentioned. “To me, all people’s been open arms. Even speaking to Coach Heupel, he’s like, ‘Something we will do for you, simply tell us.’ Consider me, I’m in there so much.”

For extra on the cardboard, go to MMA Junkie’s occasion hub for UFC Combat Night time 239.