Ever since Jan Blachowicz won the UFC light heavyweight title in September, his future plans seemed set. The Polish powerhouse was almost undoubtedly going to defend his title against the winner of Thiago Santos and Glover Teixeira, a battle of two of the world’s top light heavyweight contenders.
But then the Santos-Teixeira fight got delayed – not once, but twice, owing to both fighters testing positive for COVID-19 at separate times. In the meantime, significant momentum began to build for Blachowicz’s first defense to not come against an established 205-pounder. Instead, it seemed like Blachowicz would face Israel Adesanya, the all-conquering middleweight champion making a move up to light heavyweight, perhaps to make some point in his social media feud with Jon Jones.
As time passed and the Blachowicz-Adesanya pairing grew more certain, the exact stakes of Santos-Teixeira grew ever more uncertain. Teixeira is 41 years old, and no spring chicken. Santos, 36, is only just returning from a major knee injury that may have shortened his career. The winner would probably be in line for a title shot, but how long would they have to wait? How long could they even afford to wait?
But in one night, Teixeira might have just changed all of that. The Brazilian veteran may have scored the most impressive win of his 18-year career on Saturday night, coming back in dramatic fashion to submit Santos in the third round and perhaps make the Blachowicz-Adesanya fight wait for another day.
Glover Teixeira is the human embodiment of the “Call the ambulance…… but not for me!” meme. Santos, one of the most dangerous strikers in the UFC, rocked him badly within the first minute – Teixeira responded by taking him down and dominating the rest of the next two rounds. Santos nearly had him again in the third, dropping him with a vicious left hand almost right out of the gate, but a wobbled Glover managed to within seconds tie him up, sweep him, take his back and lock in a rear naked choke.
No one has mastered the art of the comeback like Uncle Glover. He gets rocked all the time, but is immensely hard to put away. He has some of the best desperation wrestling in the history of the sport – by the time you’re moving in for the kill, he’s already decided that he isn’t rocked anymore, and he’s hitting you with a double-leg and proceeding to make your life miserable.
So he did to Santos, who ate an absolutely demoralizing loss on Saturday, after an arduous 15 months out of the cage after blowing his knee completely out against Jones. The thing about it is, I don’t think Santos really did a single thing wrong! He nearly nuked Teixeira out of the Octagon twice. He just fell into the same trap so many other fighters have fallen into. He moved to try and look for the finish, only for Teixeira’s Wolverine-like healing factor to kick in and allow one of the most punishing top pressure fighters in light heavyweight history to get to work.
Almost any other fighter would have been knocked out, and we’d be talking about dates for Santos’ meeting with Blachowicz. But the fact that it was Teixeira has changed things. Teixeira has been on one of the runs of his life in his early 40s, winning five in a row against fighters who, on average, are about 10 years younger than him. Santos, injury aside, still looked plenty dangerous on Saturday and surely has plenty of time left. Teixeira’s future is less certain. It’s may be time to shit or get off the pot with Uncle Glover.
That was the message that Glover had after the win: I deserve the shot and I’m not getting any younger, so let’s not wait around. It’s an argument that may have found some purchase with Dana White, and Blachowicz himself has now opened the door for a matchup with Teixeira early next year.
The outpouring of respect from across the MMA world for Teixeira’s accomplishments, at his age, was really pretty heartwarming, with even noted insecure Twitter pissbaby Jones calling him “the new goat” and saying he was proud to have beaten him. And even though Teixeira was being overlooked (I’m guilty of this myself!) just days ago, and even though Blachowicz-Adesanya would be a big time champion-versus-champion showdown, there seems to be more popular momentum for Glover getting the next championship opportunity than anyone else.
Not bad for a guy whose professional MMA career started before the Iraq War. With one amazing performance, Glover Teixeira might have singlehandedly altered the entire pre-set course of events at light heavyweight. Now go get the old man his belt.
The Big Fight 