Glover Teixeira survives early onslaught to submit Thiago Santos in round three at UFC Vegas 13

The UFC has been on an absolute tear with shows taking place week after week. Tonight, Saturday, November 7, proves to be no different. Live from the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada, two top five light-heavyweight contenders face off in the five-round main event.

Former title challengers Thiago Santos and Glover Teixeira collided tonight to see who’s next in line for a shot at UFC Light-Heavyweight Champion Jan Blachowicz, if Israel Adesanya doesn’t get it that is.

The No. 1 ranked UFC light-heavyweight contender Thiago Santos hasn’t fought since July of last year in his split decision losing effort against Jon Jones, while the No. 3 ranked UFC light-heavyweight contender Glover Teixeira has gone 2-0 in that time, and is on a four-fight win streak.

Round 1

Santos opens up the fight with a front snap kick, before catching Teixeira with a barrage of punches, hurting him badly. He swarmed while Teixeira was hurt, and had him hurt for a few seconds while swarming him, but got taken down. He made his way back up, but was kept on the fence, before being taken down again, right into mount this time.

Teixeira remained on top for the rest of this round, passing to mount and regaining half guard, before ultimately ending the round in Santos’ guard.

Round 2

Santos opens up round two throwing kicks again, like he did in round one, and was immediately pushed back into the fence. Teixeira finished the takedown and pounded on Santos the entire round, before passing to mount, then back mount to sink in a rear naked choke.

The choke was definitely locked in tight, but Santos was saved by the bell and they were headed to round three.

Round 3

Santos stuffed the initial takedown attempt from Teixeira, the first takedown he was able to avoid, and immediately cracked Teixeira with a vicious left hook, dropping him and hurting him badly. Santos stayed on top for a good 80 seconds ground-and-pounding Teixeira.

However, Teixeira was able to reverse the position up against the fence and take Santos’ back again. This time he had a lot of time on the clock to finish his rear naked choke. Santos needed to stuff the takedowns and throw his hands only, he didn’t do that, and Teixeira is now the No. 1 contender at 41-years-old.

Teixeira’s ground-and-pound, wrestling, and grappling award him the victory once again.

Official Result: Glover Teixeira def. Thiago Santos via submission (rear naked choke) at 1:49 of round three

Brady Ordway

I became a fan of combat sports when I was 12 years old. I was scrolling through the channels and landed upon Versus, where WEC was televised. Urijah Faber fought Jens Pulver for the second time that night. That's the first fight I ever saw, and I was immediately hooked. So eventually, I began covering the sport in the fourth quarter of 2018, and have since started writing about animals as well. If you'd like to see those pieces, be sure to check out learnaboutnature.com!

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