Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
Light heavyweight contender Glover Teixeira shares some insight on the “secret” to his recent win streak.
Some say that old dogs can’t learn new tricks, but seasoned light heavyweight contender Glover Teixeira begs to differ. At 41 years of age, the Brazilian finds himself on an impressive four-fight winning streak against fighters much younger than himself, and is just hours away from taking on another legitimate top contender in Thiago Santos.
Although most MMA data points to the fact that fighters over 40 are not at the peak of their skills anymore, Teixeira is happy to be one of the exceptions. In an interview with Ag Fight, Glover explained what he believes to be the reason for his recent success. In his opinion, expaniding his horizons and listening to his coaches’ advice could very well make up for other drawbacks age may bring.
“The secret is to listen, open your mind, listen to the pros. With the help of the UFC’s Performance Institute, too. Listening to my coaches and listening to my body, too. Having discipline. It’s not just listening, too, because sometimes people have the knowledge but don’t know how to use it. You need to be able to put that to practice. And you must want to do it. It’s a dream of mine to win the division’s belt. That’s why it’s been working.”
Despite being 41 and having 38 bouts under his belt, Glover still does not consider retirement as much as other fighters with a record like his probably would. Funnily enough, Teixeira thought he would be already retired by this age, but has now deciced to take his career one fight at a time.
“To be honest, I’m not the kind of guy to think about the future in the long term. When I first started, I thought I’d be retired by this age, but it’s something I’ve never really considered. To this day I don’t stop to think things like: ‘will I still be fighting in five years?’ I’m just living life, but I’m happy to still be fighting at 41. It’s something I like to do, so the more I can do this, the better.”
Currently on a four-fight winning streak, Teixeira (31-7) bested Karl Roberson, Ion Cutelaba, Nikita Krylov and Anthony Smith in his last four outings, with just one of those wins going the distance. The 41-year-old’s last loss happened in July 2018, when he dropped a unanimous decision to Corey Anderson.
Now, Teixeira is expected to meet Santos at UFC Fight Night 182’s main event, on November 7, in Las Vegas, Nevada.