Cover photo courtesy of Glover Teixeira
Glover Teixeira (29-7) made a huge splash when he entered the UFC in 2012. His debut against Kyle Kingsbury ended within the first two minutes with an arm triangle and continued his winning streak from there. Teixeira went on to defeat Fabio Maldonado, James Te Huna, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and current Bellator champ Ryan Bader. When he fought for the light heavyweight title, he lost a decision to a Jon Jones who had just settled into his prime.
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Since then, Glover Teixeira has been trying to elevate himself back into title contention. Since his fight against Jones, Teixeira has gone 7-4 with wins over Patrick Cummins, Rashad Evans, Jared Cannonier and most recently Ion Cutelaba. He also holds losses within that time period to Corey Anderson and Alexander Gustafsson. According to the UFC’s official rankings, Teixeira is currently number 9 in the Light Heavyweight division. He has made it far in his career with his background in Brazilian jiu-jitsu as a 2nd Dan and a hybrid style known as Kajukenbo, in which he currently holds a 5th Dan blackbelt. On the grappling side of things, Teixeira is well practiced in wrestling and has earned gold and silver at ADCC South America in 2009 and 2011 respectively.
On the UFC’s website, Teixeira is listed as being 39 years of age. In his most recent fight against Ion Cutelaba, Teixeira seemed to have trouble keeping up with the initial pace being set by his 25-year old opponent. Although, superior skill and experience carried him to a submission win in the second round, it was clear that age played a factor in Teixeira having to weather a storm. This leads some fans to believe that Teixeira is in the twilight of his career. In an interview with MMA Fighting last year, he hoped to put himself back in the title picture; meaning he may want another attempt to earn the title before leaving the sport.
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On September 14th he will be fighting against Nikita Krylov (26-6). Krylov carries a background in Kyokushin karate and what a google search defines as simply “submission fighting.” For Teixeira a victory of the Ukrainian-born prospect could possibly put him in a title eliminator against one of the other top contenders like Dominick Reyes, Corey Anderson, Jan Blachowicz or Volkan Oezdemir. They will be fighting in the co-main event of UFC on ESPN+16 being headlined by Donald Cerrone and Justin Gaethje. The main card will broadcast at 7 p.m. central time.■
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