Glover Teixeira has defeated his countryman Thiago Santos at the UFC Fight Night tonight in Las Vegas. The 41-year old submitted Santos at 1:49 of the third round, after enduring one hell of a fight.
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The two Brazilians put up a wonderful show at the UFC APEX facility in Las Vegas. They were going after one another right from the start and creating several ups and downs, with both of them having the initiative during the same.
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It was Santos (21-8 MMA, 13-7 UFC) who opened this fight with several combinations putting the older rival on the backfoot and indicating that things might be over pretty soon. However, like so many times before, Glover (32-7 MMA, 15-5 UFC) endured all the challenges, turning the situation into his favor after managing to take Santos down to the canvas.
His superb grappling skills quickly provided an edge on the ground, and Santos had to eat a few massive ground and pound combos.
It was the same in the second, with Teixeira dominating down on the floor after a fast takedown scored early on. He went after a choke, but the horn prevented the 41-year old from solving the match.
The third round generated another shock, with Santos rocking Teixeira right away. Glover wanted to take down his opponent, but Marreta saw it coming, immediately unleashing a vicious combination upon Teixeira, who founded himself on the canvas. Miraculously, he would survive that, to come back to his feet before finally making a takedown and submitting Santos, who was visibly tired following all the challenges.
Teixeira won for the fifth straight time now, and is close to securing another chance to attack the title. Many already saw this match as a title-eliminator, which would give the challenger to the new light heavyweight challenger, Jan Blachowicz.
After beating Anthony Smith almost the same as Santos, (following a colossal comeback), Nikita Krylov, Ion Cutelaba, and Karl Roberson, Teixeira, who already had one chance to take the belt, would no doubt among the top picks for the fight with the Polish titleholder.
As for Santos, he got back into the ring following a one-year absence after losing to Jon Jones in the title-match. Per many, that was one of the biggest controversies in the UFC ever. The Brazilian was ripped with a split decision that kept the belt in Jones’ property. Ring rust in tonight’s contest was obvious, and Marreta needs to go back and work a lot harder to get back to the level from some two years ago, once he KOd the current division champion.
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