Glover Teixeira reflects on title win, didn’t expect to dominate so easily

At long last, Glover Teixeira is the UFC light heavyweight champion.

UFC 267 was headlined by Poland’s Jan Blachowicz who hoped to make a second title defense against the resurgent 42-year old Brazilian. However, Teixeira has other plans as a quick takedown in round one led to a dominant start before rocking and finishing the champion on the ground in round two with a rear-naked choke.

“When Joe Martinez was announcing my name, I was just looking at the ground, looking at the blood in there,” Glover Teixeira said on MMA Fighting’s The MMA Hour. “I’m a bleeder myself, so I was like, ‘We’re gonna contribute to this blood because this is gonna be a war.’ Thinking that ‘This is gonna be a war. It’s not gonna be an easy fight, but I’m ready for whatever comes in this cage. There’s a man across the octagon with me and I have to beat him. I’ll be world champion tonight.’

“I really think the whole thing is gonna be hard. I look at the fence, I look like how can I take him down and get elbows and watching this and that, so I didn’t think I was going to dominate him and take him down that easy. Again, ‘easy’ with all respect. It was a quick takedown.”

Teixeira (33-7) joined the UFC in 2021 where he got off to a hot start by winning five straight to earn a title shot opposite Jon Jones. It would be his only crack at UFC gold until all these years later.

“I was punching him (Blachowicz) and we call the move, ‘spread the chicken,’” Teixeira said. “So I stretch him to the ground, my cup is pressing on his back. That’s a very uncomfortable pressure there and as soon as I put the hand, he tapped.

“But I knew he wasn’t gonna go anywhere, so he probably knew that too. It’s a tough position to get out of so might as well just tap I guess.”