Matchmaker Monday following UFC Vegas 13

UFC Vegas 13 was big night for Glover Teixeira as he picked up a submission win over Thiago Santos in the main event.

At 41-years-old, Teixeira is on a five-fight winning streak and sits in the drivers seat as he’s likely going to be ranked as the No.1 contender in the UFC’s light heavyweight division following his win.

As for Santos, who fought for the first time since losing a close decision to Jon Jones, he’s not in a terrible spot within the division and he’ll be able to get himself back into title contention with another win or two.

Let’s fight out what’s next for these two men on this Matchmaker Monday.

Glover Teixeira
Result: defeated Thiago Santos by third-round submission at UFC Vegas 13
Next: Aleksandar Rakic

Right now the ball is in UFC president Dana White’s court.

At first he was all about UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya moving up to light heavyweight and challenging Jan Blachowicz. Now after watching Teixeira’s performance, he’s debating on giving the shot to him.

Ultimately, I feel like White is going to strike while the iron is hot and book Adesanya due to the amount of money the company can make off that fight.

If that is the case, that’ll leave Teixeira needing a dance partner, so I’d book him with Rakic. I’m sold on Rakic and believe he has a ton of skills. He’s currently ranked fourth in the division and it’ll be a big opportunity for him. Whoever would win that fight would get the next crack at the 205 pound title.

Thiago Santos
Result: lost to Glover Teixeira by third-round submission at UFC Vegas 13
Next: Winner of Dominick Reyes and Jiri Prochazka on Feb. 27

So here’s a good problem for the UFC right now.

You can give the winner of the Reyes vs. Prochazka fight to Teixeira and give Rakic to Santos and there would be no complaints.

Of course you still have Teixeira getting a title fight and then all of this can get messed up. However the point is you have options. All these fighters are in great position and all the fights would be fun matchups no matter how you want to slice it.

In the case of Santos, both him and Reyes have both fought for titles and lost so I’m going with that route. Now Reyes isn’t guaranteed a win by any stretch of the imagination and if he loses then Prochazka gets his spot to fight Santos next.