Glover Teixeira has been taking a page out of the Randy Couture/Dan Henderson playbook recently in that he has saved some of his best performances for after his 40th birthday.
The 41-year-old Brazilian extended his winning streak to five when he defeated countryman and No. 1-ranked light-heavyweight contender Thiago Santos over the weekend in the main event of a Fight Night event at the UFC APEX in Las Vegas.
Santos came out firing and was landing hard early on Teixeira before the older fighter took the fight to the ground and imposed his will. Teixeira nearly finished the fight with a rear-naked choke late in the second stanza but Santos was saved by the horn to end the round. Santos nearly ended the fight early in the third round when he dropped Teixeira with a left hand, but roughly 90 seconds later it was Teixeira that ended up getting the stoppage win.
FIVE IN A ROW!!!@gloverteixeira takes it by submission!! #UFCVegas13 pic.twitter.com/9TOiW20gUl
— UFC Canada (@UFC_CA) November 8, 2020
Santos hadn’t fought since losing a split decision to then-champion Jon Jones at UFC 239 in July of 2019. Santos had been recovering from knee surgery after sustaining multiple ligament tears against Jones.
Teixeira was ranked as the No. 3 contender in the 205-pound division heading into the bout but should leapfrog Santos when the rankings are updated.
Teixeira (32-7) expressed his desire to face reigning champion Jan Blachowicz next. Teixeira previously fought for the title in 2014, losing a unanimous decision to Jones.
I’m proud to have beat this guy, I like him
— BONY (@JonnyBones) November 8, 2020
Below are the complete UFC Fight Night results.
MAIN CARD
-- Glover Teixeira def. Thiago Santos by submission (rear-naked choke)
-- Andrei Arlovski def. Tanner Boser by unanimous decision
-- Raoni Barcelos def. Khalid Taha by unanimous decision
-- Giga Chikadze def. Jamey Simmons TKO
-- Yan Xiaonan def. Cláudia Gadelha by unanimous decision
PRELIMINARY CARD
-- Trevin Giles def. Bevon Lewis by TKO
-- Alexandr Romanov def. Marcos Rogério de Lima by technical submission (forearm choke)
-- Darren Elkins def. Luiz Eduardo Garagorri by submission (rear-naked choke)
-- Max Griffin def. Ramiz Brahimaj by TKO (doctor stoppage)
-- Gustavo Lopez def. Anthony Birchak by submission (rear-naked choke)
