Santos, Teixeira Will Send ‘Stylebender’ Back To 185

Photo by Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC

Thiago Santos is going to kill two birds with one stone.

That stone would be his devastating right hand, directly responsible for 15 brutal knockouts in the Brazilian’s combat sports career (like this one), spread across both middleweight and light heavyweight and dating back to WOCS 10 in Rio de Janeiro nearly a decade ago.

That’s why “Marreta” isn’t losing any sleep over UFC President Dana White’s plans to let Israel Adesanya jump up in weight to challenge reigning 205-pound kingpin Jan Blachowicz, especially after the show he puts on this weekend in “Sin City.”

“Honestly when I saw it the first time, I felt a little bit frustrated,” Santos told MMA Junkie. “After I spoke with my manager, we need to understand how things look. I need to do my best. I need to (beat) Glover Teixeira. After that fight, we will see what happens. People speak about Adesanya but still they don’t have contracts. Everything can change. My focus is to do my best this Saturday and make a great victory, then after that we will see.”

That door swings both ways and opponent Glover Teixeira, who like his Brazilian rival has already gone five rounds against former champion Jon Jones, can also steal the next title shot with an impressive performance over the hard-hitting “Marreta.”

Until then, it’s business as usual.

“I’m not disappointed yet. It didn’t happen yet,” Teixeira said about Adesanya vs. Blachowicz. “Everything’s possible. We’ll see after this fight. I’ll go in there and make some noise. I never really talk too much shit, but I’ll have to to promote this fight and get Adesanya out of there and take over the title fight. That’s what I’ll do. Take him back to 185.”

Or up to 265.

The action gets underway in the UFC Vegas 13 light heavyweight main event this Sat. night (Nov. 7, 2020) inside APEX facility in Las Vegas, Nevada, the second-to-last ESPN+ fight card before this month’s UFC 255 pay-per-view (PPV) event.

MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC Vegas 13 fight card this weekend RIGHT HERE, starting with the ESPN+ “Prelims” matches, which are scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. ET, then the remaining main card balance on ESPN+ and ESPN2 at 10 p.m. ET.

To check out the latest and greatest UFC Vegas 13 news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive right here. For the complete UFC Vegas 13 fight card and ESPN+ lineup click here.