A light-heavyweight match-up between Phil Davis and Glover Teixeira has been earmarked for UFC 179 in Brazil on October 25th.
This will be the first fight for Davis since his hopes of getting into title contention were dashed by Anthony Johnson who defeated him by unanimous decision in a surprisingly one-sided fight.
That was only the second loss of ‘Mr Wonderful’s’ career and saw him slip back to sixth position in the official 205lb rankings, so this upcoming fight will be important for him to show that his confidence hasn’t been affected by the defeat and that he still has what it takes to work his way back into the title hunt.
Teixeira is in a similar position, also looking to get back on the horse after light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones shut down his 20 fight unbeaten run by unanimous decision back in April at UFC 172.
He’s now ranked No.4 in the division, so a win over Davis would ensure he stays shoulder-to-shoulder with the other top contenders, though it’s likely he’d need another couple of fights under his belt before he could build a convincing case to get another shot at Jones given how their last encounter panned out.
The champion’s immediate future looks to be tied up anyway with Jones set to face Daniel Cormier at UFC 178 on September 27th, with the winner almost certain to face current No.1 contender Alexander Gustafsson when he returns from injury after that.
Davis Vs Teixeira joins a previously announced featherweight title headliner between Jose Aldo and Chad Mendes on UFC 179’s pay-per-view main card.
