Ovince St. Preux Says UFC on Fox 27 Opponent Ilir Latifi Injured, Out of Scheduled Jan. 27 Fight

Another Ultimate Fighting Championship co-main event looks to has fallen by the wayside.

On Tuesday evening, light heavyweight Ovince St. Preux took to Twitter to announce that his scheduled opponent for UFC on Fox 27, Ilir Latifi, had suffered an injury in training and pulled out of their contest. “OSP” offered an open call to potential replacements, even expressing his comfort with a heavyweight bout.

UFC on Fox 27, headlined by a middleweight rematch between “Jacare” Ronaldo Souza and Derek Brunson, is scheduled for Jan. 27 at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, N.C.. The UFC has yet to comment on Latifi’s status.

“@Latifimma is hurt & out of our scrap next Sat in Charlotte, NC #UFConFOX27 who wants to step up and scrap?” tweeted St. Preux. “I’m even open to going up in weight if NO guys in my division will step up? Looking for someone to do what I do: step up and fight.”

. @Latifimma is hurt & out of our scrap next Sat in Charlotte, NC #UFConFOX27 who wants to step up and scrap? I’m even open to going up in weight if NO guys in my division will step up? Looking for someone to do what I do: step up and fight... pic.twitter.com/lvznRvE22I

— Ovince Saint Preux (@003_OSP) January 17, 2018

St. Preux, 33, went 3-1 in 2017. After suffering a surprise split decision loss to a late replacement Volkan Oezdemir, the former University of Tennessee linebacker choked out Marcos Rogerio de Lima and Yushin Okami with his trademark shoulder choke, then viciously head kicked Corey Anderson in the third round at UFC 217 on Nov. 4.


After the win over Anderson, St. Preux was forthright in his desire to square off with Latifi.

“I didn’t pick him; he picked me,” St. Preux said. “He called me out a while back, and I said, ‘Let’s do it.’ When this situation came up, I jumped on it.”