Glover Teixeira fought the majority of last Saturday’s light heavyweight title fight against Jon Jones with a torn labrum in his right shoulder.
According to Teixeira’s coach John Hackleman, Jones injured Teixeira’s shoulder when he applied a shoulder crank up against the cage at the 3:49 mark of the first round. Teixeira never complained about the injury in between rounds, opting only to tell Hackleman and the rest of his team about the injury in the locker room after the fight. An MRI on Friday in Connecticut revealed the tear, which will require surgery. Teixeira has yet to decide when and where the surgery will take place.
Teixeira would lose the UFC 172 title fight via unanimous decision.
“When I found out after the fight about the injury, it broke my heart,” Hackleman said. “Had I known, I probably would have stopped it even though everyone would have hated my guts.
“So he just fought on with a torn labrum, swinging. It wasn’t like he was running, he was moving forward and banging. It’s unbelievable to think of going five rounds with Jones like that. And we’re not taking anything away from Jones because he caused the injury. Both the eye and the shoulder. So kudos to Jones for doing that. They are both legal moves. He didn’t try to hurt Glover intentionally, he did what he had to do to win.
“It just shows the mental fortitude and toughness of Glover. It shows what he’s capable of. It made me proud, man.”
In addition to the injured shoulder, a Jones elbow in the third round opened a deep cut above Teixeira’s right eye.
The loss snapped Teixeira’s nine-year 20-fight winning streak.