A light-heavyweight title fight between Jon Jones and Glover Teixeira has now been made official for UFC 172 in Baltimore on April 26th.
The bout has been playing the MMA equivalent of musical chairs in recent months as it’s previously been announced for several other upcoming shows before finally settling on it’s current date.
The fact that it was being targeted as UFC 172’s headliner had been reported previously, but until it was officially confirmed yesterday the destination had remained uncertain. Now we now it’ll be in Baltimore, and this will mark the UFC’s first visit to the state of Maryland.
Jones is coming off a ‘Fight Of The Year’ battle with Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 166 in September, his toughest test in the Octagon to date and will be looking to make his seventh successful title defense and potentially set up a rematch with the Swede if he can overcome Teixeira.
In Teixeira he faces an opponent with a formidable record though, with the Brazilian currently having gone unbeaten in his last 20 fights, five of those coming within the past year and a half in the UFC, including his most recent first round TKO victory over Ryan Bader.
Jones Vs Teixeira is the only fight so far announced for UFC 172, but with Anderson Silva and GSP out of action in 2014, ‘Bones’ has the potential to be the biggest draw on the roster so it’s likely the UFC will be looking to build a strong PPV card for this show.
