Thiago Santos and Glover Teixeira don’t think they’re completely out of the running for the next light heavyweight title shot just yet. Saturday’s UFC on ESPN+ 40 headliner between Santos (21-7 MMA, 13-6 UFC) and Teixeira (31-7 MMA, 14-5 UFC), which takes place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas and streams on ESPN+, was thought to be a title eliminator after new champion Jan Blachowicz claimed 205-pound gold last month. A swerve was delivered just days before the fight, though, when UFC president Dana White announced that middleweight champ Israel Adesanya (20-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC) would be moving up to challenge Blachowicz (27-8 MMA, 10-5 UFC) in the first quarter of 2021. Santos, who is coming of a split decision loss to then-champ Jon Jones at UFC 239 in July 2019, admits he was slightly agitated when the news of Adesanya’s title shot first surfaced. However, he’s not going to simply allow himself to be stepped over.
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