On Saturday, two former UFC light heavyweight title challengers face off in the main event of the UFC Vegas 13 fight card. Those fighters are Thiago Santos and Glover Teixeira.
Santos has not fought since he dropped a split decision to Jon Jones in July 2019. After that defeat, Santos went under the knife to repair injuries to both his knees. “Marreta” tore the ACL, MCL, PCL and meniscus in his left knee and partially tore the meniscus in the right.
In that contest, Santos became the first fighter to take a scorecard from Jones. “Bones” kept his UFC title with the victory. Santos was on a four-fight winning streak before he faced Jones.
Teixeira, who is currently on a run of four straight wins, is coming off a May 2020 shellacking of Anthony Smith. Teixeira won that contest by TKO in the fifth round.
Teixeira faced Jones for the title in 2014. Jones won that contest by unanimous decision. Before his title fight, Teixeira was on a 20-fight winning streak with five victories coming under the UFC banner.
Until last week this contest would have most likely been a title eliminator, but with Dana White announcing that 205-pound champion Jan Blachowicz will be matched up against middleweight kingpin Israel Adesanya, the winner of this fight is likely at least one more victory away from securing a second light heavyweight title shot.
Santos vs. Teixeira takes place at UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Here is how the main event competitors line up in the most important statistical categories.
Santos vs. Teixeira head-to-head stats
| Stat | Santos | Teixeira |
|---|---|---|
| Stat | Santos | Teixeira |
| Sig. Strikes Lander Per Min. | 4.44 | 3.74 |
| Striking Accuracy | 47% | 47% |
| Strikes Absorbed Per Minute | 2.19 | 3.87 |
| Striking Defense | 57% | 55% |
| Takedown Avg./15 min | 0.83 | 1.87 |
| Takedown Accuracy | 40% | 38% |
| Takedown Defense | 68% | 60% |
| Submission Average Per 15 min | 0.1 | 0.9 |
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