Glover Teixeira didn’t want the UFC gentle heavyweight championship to be comfortable. The way in which he tells it, life over his first 4 a long time turned out fairly nice, with household and mates, a profitable battle profession and a fitness center of his personal in Danbury, Conn.
However that gold he received final October, two days after turning 42 years outdated, serves as validation for every part he labored towards over 20 years as an expert fighter.
“I used to be comfortable earlier than the belt; I even mentioned that many instances,” Teixeira not too long ago informed The Put up over the cellphone. “I say that the belt is the cherry on the cake, man. It’s gonna summarize my complete profession, my arduous work.”
Now comes the subsequent chapter — assuredly one of many final in a embellished profession — as Teixiera (33-7, 28 finishes) places his gold on the road for the primary time Saturday in Kallang, Singapore within the UFC 275 pay-per-view (10 p.m. ET) headliner in opposition to Jiri Prochazka.
Prochazka (28-3-1, 27 finishes), 29, wasted little time incomes the battle in opposition to Teixeira. Two tour de pressure victories in his first two years over high 205ers Volkan Oezdemir and former two-time title challenger Dominick Reyes did the trick. It’s uncommon in as we speak’s MMA panorama for a UFC newcomer to rise so quick, however that’s as a result of the Czech challenger already constructed a formidable résumé earlier than his arrival, one thing his coaches urged.
The identical factor occurred alongside Teixeira’s journey, as he arrived in 2012 as a revered veteran with a 17-2 mark, victories over a number of UFC veterans and the cachet of being a major coaching companion of mid-aughts famous person Chuck Liddell. However whereas Prochazka says his affected person method was a strategic resolution by his workforce, Teixeira’s delayed UFC debut resulted from visa points stemming from the best way he initially arrived in the USA as a teen, a harrowing story he recounted final 12 months.
Nonetheless, Teixeira sees worth in the best way each he and his opponent didn’t rush to the largest stage of the game. He suggests “ready is simply getting ready you for the glory,” a message he passes on to the fighters at Teixeira MMA & Health.
“I've a whole lot of college students proper now, a whole lot of younger guys [and] newbie fighters, and I preserve telling them, ‘Don’t be [in a] rush. Don’t attempt to rush to get to UFC,” Teixeira mentioned. “As a result of I at all times thought, it doesn’t matter how lengthy it takes to get there, it’s how, am I ready to remain there.
“A variety of guys, after 4 or 5 fights, they get in UFC [after] perhaps only some years [of] coaching, a few of them do nicely and preserve going, however a few of them after they face the extent that the UFC has, particularly in the event you’re getting it that early, it’s very powerful as a result of the extent is so shut, the blokes are so powerful, so sturdy, and also you’ve gotta be on the high of your sport.”
It took Teixeira simply shy of 10 years to get to the UFC. His 10-year anniversary with the promotion simply handed on the finish of final month. Tuesday marked the twentieth anniversary of his MMA debut — a loss at one of many earliest occasions from former well-regarded group WEC.
Endurance comparable to that from fighters on the heavier weight courses shouldn't be unusual. However Teixeira’s championship victory over Jan Blachowicz was greater than merely unusual as he grew to become the oldest fighter in UFC historical past to win his first title. Few might have imagined such a feat even three years in the past. And the champ “by no means imagined” he can be competing 20 years after turning professional, not to mention on the high of the mountain.
“I didn’t have creativeness again then,” mentioned Teixeira, contemplating his mindset as a younger man simply starting in a younger sport. “I used to be simply considering I’d be retired by 35, again then. Then, once I acquired to UFC, I’d say, “Possibly if I battle ’until I’m 40, I’d be a really comfortable man. And right here I'm, 42 with the belt, so that is unimaginable.”
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