The strange part about Glover Teixeira finally winning a world title – after nearly two decades as a pro fighter and over nine years in the UFC, at 42 years old the oldest first-time champion in UFC history – was how mundane it all felt.
Fighting Jan Blachowicz, another man who’s had a late-career renaissance that established him as one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world, the powerful Brazilian grappler took Blachowicz down and kept him there. You would never have thought Teixeira was the challenger and the underdog. He physically overwhelmed the world champion, wrenching the Pole’s neck with a can opener and putting him in a hole early.
That dominance repeated itself in the second round. Teixeira again took the fight to the mat, taking advantage of an ill-advised kimura attempt to take Blachowicz’s back. Moments later, he had locked in a rear-naked choke, and that was that. Unlike so many of his recent fights, there was no drama. No heart-stopping comeback. No adversity at all, really. At 42 years old, Glover Teixeira simply showed up and was better.
Very rarely do you ever see such a straight-line domination of a world champion. It brought to mind fights like Israel Adesanya–Robert Whittaker, T.J. Dillashaw–Renan Barao, and Jon Jones–Shogun Rua. The UFC champion is supposed to be the best fighter in the world at his weight class – a challenger isn’t typically supposed to be so definitively better than them. But nothing about Glover Teixeira’s run to the top has been typical.
Teixeira was arguably one of the best light heavyweights in the world as far back as the late 2000s, but was unable to get a visa to fight with the UFC. He survived a harrowing journey to make it from Brazil to the United States. He didn’t debut in the UFC until he was 32 and fought for a world title for the first time at 34. By every metric he’s one of the most successful light heavyweights of all time, but seemed pegged as the level of fighter who, at this point of his career, would never make it to the top.
Even his most recent run – six straight wins starting in Jan. 2019 – that has resulted in the championship that so long eluded him has felt extremely unlikely. At times he’s looked every bit as old and slow as you’d expect from a fighter in his early 40s. Several times he looked like he was on the brink of getting knocked out. He’s somehow found a way every single time. And most unlikely, after facing dire adversity against the likes of Karl Roberson, Ion Cutelaba and Thiago Santos, it was Blachowicz – the world champion – who gave Teixeira the least trouble.
As I said, even without this title Teixeira would go down as one of the great light heavyweights of his era, with his amazing longevity and wins over many of the top contenders over multiple generations. But this win over Blachowicz elevates him to a level with the Shogun Ruas, Lyoto Machidas and Chuck Liddells – when you talk about the very greatest light heavyweights to ever compete in mixed martial arts, you can no longer omit Glover Teixeira’s name.
What a thing having a piece of gold around your waist can do for your legacy. Which is why I’m still surprised that it felt so mundane – but I’m sure Teixeira is just fine with that.
The Big Fight 