A light-heavyweight fight between Anthony ‘Lionheart’ Smith and Glover Teixeira has been signed for UFC Fight Night 173 in Lincoln, Nebraska on April 25th.
Smith will be returning to the city he grew up in hoping to build on a submission victory over Alexander Gustafsson in his last fight back in June of last year.
That victory came after an unsuccessful attempt to claim the light-heavyweight title from Jon Jones, following three wins in a row that marked his arrival in the division in impressive fashion back in 2018 against Rashad Evans, Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua and Volkan Oezdemir.
As such, Smith is still in a strong position in the 205lb rankings, currently holding down the No.3 spot.
As for Teixeira, despite having now reached 40-years-of-age he’s also been performing well of late, racking up three wins in a row during his 2019 campaign.
That began with submission victories over both Karl Roberson and Ion Cutelaba, followed by a split decision win against Nikita Krylov, leaving him placed No.9 in the division.
Smith vs. Teixeira is expected to take the headline spot on the UFC Fight Night 173 card, which also sees Cynthia Calvillo fight Antonino Shevchenko and Anthony Rocco Martin go up against David Zawada.
