Since Jon Jones has relinquished the UFC Light Heavyweight division, the 205 lbs weight class has become really interesting once again. Now, over the next few weeks the future of the division will be sorted out, we’ll have a new no.1 contender and most importantly a new champion. But who will those two men be?
So the no.1 contender match between no.2 contender, Thiago Santos and no.4 ranked legend, Glover Teixeira. I personally think that Santos should be fighting for the title instead but because he’s fighting Glover, his Brazilian counterpart, I don’t mind as much anymore. At the age of 40 Glover is still competing at the top level and is on a 4 fight winning streak. As much as I love the legend, he’s recently gone through a war with Anthony Smith and I don’t expect him to beat the Thiago Santos that pushed Jon Jones to his limits last year with a torn ACL, MCL, PCL and meniscus in his left knee. I’m certain Santos would’ve beaten Jones if that wasn’t the case.
The winner of Santos vs Teixeira will face the winner of Reyes vs Blachowicz, who fight for the vacant title at UFC 253. I will do my predictions and proper breakdown analysis for this fight in my UFC 253 Predictions closer to the event. I know Jan was next in line to fight Jones when he was the champion but I still would’ve prefered to see Santos vs Reyes at UFC 253. I guess that’s a fight we’ll either get next or later down the line.
In the wings we have Aleksandar Rakic, who has just come off his win against Anthony Smith. Unless he waits for a bit, I expect his next fight to be against someone lower than him in the rankings as he sits in 5th position at the moment.
The month of September is going to be a big month for the Light Heavyweight division, and I’m here for all of it.
TheWrestlingFallacy 