Though it wasn't the originally scheduled opponent for him in Joel Alvarez, Benoît Saint Denis made it a successful night against short-notice opponent Kyle Prepolec, scoring a submission in the opening bout of the UFC 315 pay-per-view.
Saint Denis scored a takedown almost right away, using his pressure against the fence on Prepolec, who looked to keep a hold of a kimura lock. Saint Denis eventually got to Prepolec's back and threatened a choke. Prepolec got back to his feet, but Saint Denis quickly returned him to the mat and locked a body triangle back in. Prepolec was able to get to his feet but wasn't able to shake Saint Denis off of him, just able to hold on to the end of the round.
Prepolec surprised with a left hand that caught Saint Denis's attention, opening a mousse under one of Saint Denis's eyes. Both men connected and quickly resulted in an exchange. Saint Denis loaded up, but Propolec got him in a body lock against the fence. Saint Denis landed hard with elbows and knees in close. Despite a brief move to the other side of the cage, Saint Denis continued to land in the clinch, including a number of hard elbows.
Saint Denis then scored another takedown and quickly locked up an arm-triangle choke, scoring the second-round submission.
Benoît Saint Denis Submits Kyle Propolec At UFC 315
BSD rebounds from a two-fight losing skid, falling short to Dustin Poirier and Renato Moicano last year. Prior to those losses, Saint Denis had a five-fight win streak going for him.
Prepolec sees a three-fight win streak snapped but is still 4-2 in his last six. Prepolec fought in the UFC twice in 2019, losing to Nordine Taleb and Austin Hubbard.