Jon Jones-Glover Teixeira, Mir-Overeem top UFC 169 on Super Bowl weekend

It was the hot likelihood, and now it’s a done deal: Jon Jones will defend his light heavyweight title on Super Bowl weekend against Glover Teixeira.

The title fight between Jones (19-1 MMA, 13-1 UFC) and Teixeira (22-2 MMA, 5-0 UFC) will headline what now will be the UFC 169 pay-per-view on Feb. 1 at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. In addition, a heavyweight bout between former UFC champ Frank Mir (16-8 MMA, 14-8 UFC) and former Strikeforce champ Alistair Overeem (36-13 MMA, 1-2 UFC) has been moved from UFC 167 in November and may wind up serving as the card’s co-main event, though that is not yet official.

The news was reported Thursday night by Newsday and later confirmed by UFC officials.

UFC officials told Newsday in a statement that the Mir-Overeem fight was moved to allow Mir more time to recover following his knockout loss to Josh Barnett on Aug. 31. That fight was supposed to be part of the UFC’s 20th anniversary show on Nov. 16 in Las Vegas.

UFC President Dana White this past week told ESPN that Jones wanted to fight Teixeira rather than an immediate rematch against Alexander Gustafsson, whom he beat on Sept. 21 in the main event of UFC 165. White said the fight was likely to take place at the UFC’s Super Bowl weekend show.

The UFC’s annual Super Bowl weekend show typically is in Las Vegas, but this year heads to New Jersey, which hosts the NFL’s title game the next day at MetLife Stadium in nearby East Rutherford.

Jones was a heavy favorite against Gustafsson, but lost the first round on all three judges’ scorecards in Canada. But in the he rallied in the fourth and fifth rounds to win with a 48-47, 48-47, 49-46 unanimous decision. The win broke the UFC’s record for consecutive light heavyweight title defenses with six.

The fight quickly was lauded as one of the best title bouts in UFC history.

Teixeira was named the next No. 1 contender in September after his second-round knockout of Ryan Bader in Brazil. By the time he fights Jones on Super Bowl weekend, it will have been nearly nine years since he most recently lost, a unanimous decision to current UFC fighter Ed Herman in Oregon. Since then, the Brazilian, a longtime training partner of former UFC champ Chuck Liddell, has rattled off 20 straight wins.

The Mir-Overeem fight will be between a pair of Top 15-ranked fighters and former champions. Overeem is ranked No. 8 and Mir No. 12 in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie.com MMA heavyweight rankings.

Mir will be looking to rebound from three consecutive losses, the first losing skid of his career. At UFC 164 in Milwaukee in August, he was stopped by Barnett in the first round of the card’s co-main event. Mir popped up quickly, objecting to the stoppage and saying he could have continued. But it was a TKO loss nonetheless.

At UFC 146 in May 2012, he lost a title shot against then-champ Junior dos Santos after he had put together three straight wins over Mirko Filipovic, Roy Nelson and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. But after the loss to JDS, he lost to Daniel Cormier in April. Now his UFC career could be on the line against Overeem.

Overeem needs a win, as well. After a victory in his UFC debut against Brock Lesnar, he earned a title shot. But after testing for elevated testosterone levels, he was pulled from the fight and that shot went to Mir, instead. When he returned against Antonio Silva at UFC 156 in February, he dominated “Bigfoot” through two rounds – then got knocked out in the third. Against Travis Browne in August, he again was dominant early – but Browne survived and moments later knocked Overeem out with a head kick. Before the Silva loss in February, the feared Dutch striker, a renowned kickboxer, had a stretch of more than five years without a setback.

For the latest on UFC 169, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.

(Pictured: Jon Jones)