Both Anthony Smith and Glover Teixeira have fought for the UFC light heavyweight title. On Wednesday night, in the main event of Fight Night: Smith vs. Teixeira, they will face each other with the winner possibly putting himself in line for another shot at the gold.

Catch UFC Fight Night: Smith vs. Teixeira tonight at 7pm et/4pm pt. on TSN1, TSN3, TSN4 and TSN Direct.

Smith had his title shot against Jon Jones at UFC 235 in March of 2019. He lost the bout via unanimous decision, but gained a lot of respect for continuing to fight after getting dropped by an illegal knee that could’ve resulted in a disqualification for the champion and a title change.
 
The 31-year-old last fought three months after his unsuccessful title bid when he defeated another former challenger, Alexander Gustafsson, via submission on June 1.
 
The victory was in Smith’s sixth fight since the beginning of 2018, but now he has been out of action for over 11 months. He told TSN’s Aaron Bronsteter that he much prefers to be an active fighter, getting in as many bouts as possible to improve his game.
 
"I’ve never been off this long and I think I get better the more often I fight,” Smith told TSN. “The more times I get out there, I fight and then we come back here and brainstorm and figure out what I did wrong, where can we fix it, take a little bit of a break and then get back in there. I tend to grow faster that way, so I’m just excited to get back on the horse and get back to doing what I do best.”
 
Smith will be putting his 33-14 professional MMA mark up against another veteran of the fight game, Brazilian Glover Teixeira, who enters with a 30-7 career mark and is riding a three-fight winning streak.
 
The 40-year-old has earned victories over Karl Roberson, Ion Cuțelaba and Nikita Krylov in his last three bouts.
 
Teixeira faced Jones for the light heavyweight title at UFC 172 in April of 2014, losing a unanimous decision.
 
With both men inside the Top-10 in UFC rankings, a victory in this main event bout will help build a strong case towards another title shot.
 
In the co-main event, Ovince Saint Preux will make his heavyweight debut when he moves up to face Ben Rothwell.
 
Saint Preux ended a two-fight losing streak in his last outing when he submitted Michal Oleksiejczuk last September in Copenhagen.
 
The 37-year-old enters the bout with a 24-13 overall MMA record.
 
Rothwell is also coming off a losing streak breaking victory in his last fight. He stopped Stefan Struve via second round TKO last December at Fight Night: Overeem vs. Rozenstruik.
 
The 38-year-old made his UFC debut at UFC 104 in December of 2009 against Cain Velasquez and holds a 37-12 professional MMA record.
 
On the prelims card, Canadian Sarah Moras will make her return to the Octagon against Sijara Eubanks.
 
The Kelowna, BC native last fought at UFC 242, where she earned a TKO victory over Liana Jojua.
 
Moras told the Canadian Press that she’s ready for the challenge Eubanks will pose in Wednesday’s bout.
 
"I expect her to be a pretty game opponent," Moras told The Canadian Press. "I know she comes out pretty hard in the first round. I know she's got hard striking and she's a black belt (in Brazilian jiu-jitsu) on the ground.”
 
"I'm expecting her to be strong everywhere. I'm expecting myself to be stronger."
 
Eubanks enters the bout on a two-fight losing streak, falling to Aspen Ladd and Bethe Correia.
 
She hold a 4-4 record in professional MMA.
 
The featured bout on the prelims will see former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski battle Philipe Lins.
 
UFC Fight Night: Smith vs. Teixeira is the promotion’s second card since returning to live action after cancelling a handful of events due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The action will take place at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, the same venue as last Saturday’s UFC 249 event.
 
The UFC will hold a third fight card at the same venue on Saturday, headlined by Alistair Overeem and Walt Harris.