You’d be hard-pressed to find a fighter more universally loved than [autotag]Glover Teixeira[/autotag], and at UFC 267, the 42-year-old Brazilian finally was able to wrap the UFC title around his waist.
“It feels so amazing,” Teixeira told reporters following his win in Abu Dhabi. “(I’m) so happy. This is what I dreamed for 20 years. Twenty years on the road, ups and downs, I wanted to get this belt. I wanted to be a champion. There was a time there that I thought I would never be a champion, but I love it.
“I keep believing. I discipline myself the way I have to do it, and now I won this baby.”
Teixeira’s journey to champion is one the most remarkable in UFC history. Long praised for his abilities, Teixeira was forced to stay competing in his native Brazil during a long battle to obtain a visa to the U.S.
Teixeira could have been in the UFC as early as 2005, when he was actually selected to compete on Season 2 of “The Ultimate Fighter,” but it was seven more years before he finally set foot in the octagon.
Immediately after his second-round submission win over Jan Blachowicz to claim in the title, Teixeira happily recalled the story in the octagon with UFC president Dana White.
“They did tryouts for ‘The Ultimate Fighter,’ and I was there at the trial, and I passed everything,” Teixeira recalled. “I passed the pad work, and they did a grappling match and I submitted the guy. I went to the interview and Dana liked me. He was like, ‘Oh, you train with Chuck Liddell?’
“That’s when I was going to be in the UFC in ‘The Ultimate Fighter,’ at that time, and I got held up because of my green card, because of my situation.”
But even then, Teixeira didn’t take the direct road to his belt. After losing in a bid for the title in 2014, Teixeira wasn’t sure he’d ever claim the gold. But rather than give up on himself, Teixeira said he doubled down on his efforts.
“You put in the work,” Teixeira said. “You put so much work towards it, so much discipline. Like Khabib (Nurmagomedov) said that: The life of a fighter is pretty much a life as a prison because you have to put yourself in that position – avoid a lot of things, avoid birthday parties and friends getting together and just stay isolating yourself from all the distractions if you want to really get good and be a champion.”
Teixeira is now exactly that, and it appears Jiri Prochazka, who served as a backup at UFC 267, will likely be his next opponent. But for now, Teixeira said he’s not really worried about focusing on his next move. Instead, he’s going to savor a moment that was 20 years in the making.
“(Prochazka) is a very tough guy, man,” Teixeira said. “He’s very awkward, but a very good guy. He is a different story, but definitely a tough opponent. It’s all tough opponents here, but I’m definitely looking forward to fighting him. But right now I’m really looking forward to drinking that beer than Jan gave me and enjoying some time off.”
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