Former Vols Ovince Saint Preux and Scott Holtzman Set for UFC Fight Night 73

Former Vol Ovince Saint Preux and former classroom Vol Scott Holtzman are set to take the octagon this Saturday for UFC Fight Night 73.

Saint Preux is gaining more attention in the UFC world and Knoxville, as he continues to win in knockout fashion. However, we will get to the former defensive end/linebacker in a moment.

When we say former Vols, we are often talking about an athlete like a Peyton Manning, a Todd Helton, an Eric Berry, etc. Granted, not many former Vols who did not play a scholarship sport at the university are going on to have careers as professional athletes. Let me shine the limelight briefly on a guy who this is not the case for.

Scott “Hot Sauce” Holtzman

Scott Holtzman is a Knoxville native (Fountain City), and went to Central High School where he played baseball and football. He is not a tremendous athlete that everyone knows for donning the orange and white, but a tremendous athlete nonetheless. The former UT student, I am sure wore his orange and white proud in Neyland Stadium from the stands on Saturdays, but your random Joe Blow drunk fan didn’t know the guy would be making a UFC debut a few years down the road.

That’s exactly what Holtzman is doing this weekend on the same fight card as Ovince Saint Preux.

Holtzman currently has a 7-0 record with six of those coming in the Xtreme Fighting Championships, and the last win coming in the Premier Fighting Challenge. These organizations are like the minor leagues in baseball. The 31-year old has moved up to the big leagues of mixed martial arts in impressive fashion.

He offers something the casual fan loves to see — the ability to knock you out. In his seven fights, three have been won by decision, one via submission, and three by TKO.

The former UT alum makes his debut against Anthony Christodoulou (12-5), who lost his UFC debut in January.

Expect the Holtzman and Christodoulou match to be a fun one, as both will be going for their first career wins with the UFC.

OSP

The beloved former Vol defensive end/linebacker  is one of the hottest names in UFC heading into the Saturday fight in Nashville. He has been punishing opponents in the Light Heavyweight division.

OSP strides into the match ranked as the #6 fighter in the division with an 18-6 career record. His last two fights have ended with knockouts in the first round.

After his knockout via uppercut against Patrick Cummins back in April, he proclaimed “Ovince Saint Preux versus anybody.”

That “anybody” for Saturday is Glover Teixeira, the #4 ranked fighter in the Light Heavyweight division. He has a career record of 22-4, and even though he is considered one of the best in the sport, he is coming off of back to back losses. Neither of those have been knockouts however.

Saint Preux will be facing a veteran fighter who has not been knocked out in his UFC career, and a guy who is proven to go the distance, which OSP has not had to do recently.

It will be the former Vol’s toughest fight yet, but OSP brings in a ton of confidence and momentum to the octagon.

Expect Vol Nation to be watching on FOX Sports 1 this Saturday night, and we’ll see if OSP climbs the rankings again.