When the topic of age is broached in regards to elite level MMA, the context is typically for negative purposes only.
How much wear and tear does the fighter have? Is there enough still left in the tank?
Yet, with age also comes wisdom provided the fighter is willing to use it to his advantage. In the case of Glover Teixeira, who headlines Saturday’s UFC 267 card in Abu Dhabi against defending light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz, this has been more of an acquired skill.
Time hasn’t really ever been on Teixeira’s side as it pertains to his dream of becoming a UFC champion. Visa issues delayed his initial UFC debut by nearly six years, which meant he was 35 by the time he first challenged for a title at UFC 172 in 2014, losing a five-round decision to Jon Jones that snapped a 20-fight win streak.
But Teixeira (32-7), a native of Brazil who fights out of Danbury, Connecticut, would go on to prove exactly what an old dog can still do provided he accepts the concepts of tricks both new and old. Teixeira will enter the Octagon this weekend just two days after turning 42 and come armed with a five-fight win streak that’s as feel-good of a story as the MMA news cycle can produce.
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So how did he get here?
“Passion for this sport,” Teixeira said during Wednesday’s media availability on Yas Island. “Lately, [I’ve been] more disciplined about it and more focused on what I have to do to become a champion. Of course, I did the work before — I trained like a maniac, like a dog, always — but I was doing something wrong.
“I said, ‘I am losing time over here, what do I have to do?’ I was looking for more knowledge from the [UFC Performance Institute] and my coaches and my discipline. It was like, ‘How much do I want this?'”
A revolving door of high-profile defeats — including knockout losses to Anthony Johnson and Alexander Gustafsson — stopped Teixeira’s momentum cold each time it appeared like he was closing back in on another title shot. Although hard work was never an issue for him, the defeats forced him to figure out how to work smarter as his title window began to close.
“It didn’t work out, right? It didn’t get me a title shot. It didn’t get me a championship,” Teixeira said. “So I had to humble myself and start learning new things and start improving what I know best. My boxing got better and my jiu-jitsu got better because of the drilling and pushing.”
Teixeira said he took notice of how many great fighters in his gym throughout the years stopped working on their fundamentals once the twilight of their careers began and would instead focus exclusively on sparring and conditioning.
Adding former pro boxer Fernely Feliz Sr. to his team as head striking coach was the beginning of a big change. So was seeking out younger and like-minded fighters to train with who wanted to be great as badly as he did, including former two-division Glory kickboxing champion Alex Pereira, who is set to make his UFC debut in November.
“My boxing has just gotten better. There is more caution about it and training smarter is a big key,” Teixeira said. “I’m drilling a lot where before, I relied too much on my power and strength. I was thinking that I didn’t have to drill too much anymore. I realized it’s never too late to learn new things. You can always learn new things.”
Teixeira also recommitted himself to a love affair with his grappling game, from fundamentals to new techniques, and the results were instantaneous.
He opened 2019 with back-to-back submission wins over Karl Roberson and Ion Cutelaba before edging Nikita Krylov via split decision for this third straight win. But it was his two most recent victories against a pair of former title challengers in 2020 — a fifth-round TKO of Anthony Smith and a third-round submission of Thiago Santos — that really won over any remaining skeptics as to how good Teixeira still was.
Teixeira’s plea for a title shot following the Santos win, in which he survived an incredible onslaught of punches in the opening round, was ultimately boosted when Blachowicz (28-8) used his post-fight interview following a title defense against reigning middleweight champ Israel Adesanya to say he wanted Teixeira next “because he deserves it most.”
Blachowicz had just completed his own feel-good story of evolution from middling contender to unlikely champion at age 38, and the new 205-pound king brings a similarly well-rounded style into this matchup against Teixeira.
“It’s going to be a great fight because the style matchup is amazing,” Teixeira said. “Jan likes to come in and finish fights. He goes after it. And you know me, the record speaks for itself. I’m a fighter and it’s going to be a great fight.”
Despite a right shoulder injury suffered during his fight with Jones, Teixeira has come to terms all these years later with the loss, saying, “It was not the time then.” But the ageless wonder has used the lessons learned in the years that followed that fight to best prepare him for a second shot at MMA immortality.
“I remember just losing that fight and people brushing me off and saying, ‘This is a nice guy but he will never be champion,'” Teixeira said. “We proved them wrong and we are still doing it.
“I want this, I want this really bad. I always say, ‘You leave on your shield or you don’t come home at all.’ I’ll come home with that belt.”
