Callout accepted: Ovince Saint Preux requests Ion Cutelaba matchup for UFC Busan

TAMPA, Fla. – Ovince Saint Preux is back in the win column and already knows who he wants next.

Saint Preux (24-13 MMA, 12-8 UFC) and Ion Cutelaba (15-4 MMA, 4-3 UFC) fought on the same card at UFC on ESPN+ 18 in September and both earned stoppage wins over their opponents. Afterward, Cutelaba claimed Saint Preux ducked him for that night, instead opting to fight someone else.

According to Saint Preux, though, that wasn’t what went down.

“I don’t even know how to pronounce his name, he was saying, for some reason he was saying that I was ducking him, for the card in Denmark, and that didn’t happen and what not,” Saint Preux told MMA Junkie.

Saint Preux earned a second-round submission win over Michal Oleksiejczuk at UFC on ESPN+ 18, snapping a two-fight losing skid. He remarkably was able to notch yet another patented Von Flue choke, his fourth in the UFC.

Cutelaba, meanwhile, rebounded from a loss to Glover Teixeira in emphatic fashion, running through Khalil Rountree for a TKO in the first round.

Now Saint Preux, who’s looking for a quick turnaround, has called Cutelaba out for a fight before the end of the year, and wants on the UFC on ESPN+ 23 card in South Korea on Dec. 21.

“I’ll take him up on his offer,” Saint Preux said. “South Korea card, Dec. 21, I’ll definitely do that one so if he want to fight in 2019, just let him know I’m here.”

For Saint Preux, who’s been in there with the who’s who of the 205-pound division, including light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, Cutelaba’s frame and power doesn’t intimidate him.

In fact, he says Cutelaba has never faced anyone as big as him.

“He can call himself ‘The Hulk’ or what not, but to be honest if you look at him and myself next to each other, who looks like ‘The Hulk?’” Saint Preux said. “So it’s all good. I mean it’s different when you get in there, it’s different. I don’t think he ever got in there with somebody that’s my height, my strength, my size, too.”