What’s next for Teixeira & St. Preux following UFC Fight Night 73?

Former #1 contender Glover Teixeira (23-4) put Ovince St. Preux (18-7) in front of his friends, family and the rest of the mixed martial arts fans in the state he calls home in the main event of ‘UFC Fight Night Nashville’ last night and he should be damn proud of it.

St. Preux left everything he had in the cage on this night, putting a performance that earned him and Teixeira fight of the night honors and choosing to go to sleep like a “boss,” instead of tapping out in front of a crowd that had his back from start to finish.

So, What’s Next?

Currently, we are living in a Jon Jones-less UFC light heavyweight division – which means that everyone who’s already lost to Jon Jones now has an argument for a title shot. A couple of impressive wins for Teixeira makes him one of those guys, only if Jones continues to remain invisible, that is.

Teixeira has already taken on a who’s who during his 8-fight UFC career and the two men he came up short against are both out of the UFC picture. There are plenty of top ranked guys that Teixeira could go against next but for me it’s all about match ups and stringing some wins together at this point for the 35-year-old.

A fight against ‘Rampage’ Jackson (36-11) makes the most sense for Teixeira next for multiple reasons. Rampage has went on record saying that he only wants rematches with men who have already defeated him in the past. If you look at the ten fighters who have beaten Jackson during his career, Teixeira and Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua are the only ones on the list that are currently active and don’t already have fights lined up. While a rematch with Rua may be the sexier one, Teixeira-Rampage 2 could legitimately bring any house down.

OSP has nothing to be ashamed following this loss. We’re talking about a lifelong athlete who made his Strikeforce debut just 5 years ago with a record of 4-4 who now finds himself as a UFC main eventer. Like Teixeira, OSP currently holds a 6-2 record inside of the light heavyweight division where he still finds himself inside of the top ten even after defeat.

A fight against ‘Rampage’ Jackson also makes the most sense for St. Preux next, but it won’t happen. As stated above, Jackson only wants rematches with everyone that beat him next and he has enough pull to get just that, so OSP-Rampage (the fight the UFC originally wanted for Nashville) is out unless Quinton saw a weakness in the former Volunteer on Saturday night that made him feel more comfortable. A co-main event slot on an upcoming international Fight Pass card against Ilir Latifi (10-4) would be more likely.

Latifi’s had his hand raised in 3 of his last 4 bouts with his latest being of the 56-second KO variety over Hans Stringer, not to mention that the man is responsible for single-handedly saving UFC on Fuel TV 9 when he took on Gegard Mousasi on short notice.

Who do you want to see these two light heavyweight contenders take on next? Let us know in our comments section below.