Longtime Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) light heavyweight veteran Glover Teixeira, who celebrated his 41st birthday back in October, has turned back the clock in recent fights, scoring consecutive finishes over top-ranked title contenders Thiago Santos and Anthony Smith.
Unfortunately for the Brazilian, UFC is now embracing the super fight model, so current 205-pound champion Jan Blachowicz will make his very first title defense against reigning middleweight kingpin Israel Adesanya at the UFC 259 pay-per-view (PPV) in March.
Unless something should happen to one of the headliners.
“It sucks, I’ve never rooted for anyone to get hurt, but I’ll be rooting for an injury there,” Teixeira jokingly told MMA Fighting before volunteering to serve as emergency backup. “I would have to do a full camp so, even if I have to wait, at least I did a camp, I won’t lose rhythm… COVID is complicated, you really have to pull out if you catch it.”
If not, the division could get messy with a “Stylebender” victory.
“If Adesanya wins, what happens then?” Teixeira asked. “Will Adesanya defend at 185 or 205? I don’t know. If that means sitting down and waiting until June, August, I don’t know, maybe I would wait, I don’t mind. But, honestly, we don’t know anything. Blachowicz winning would be better for me and everyone else. But if Adesanya wins, what is he going to do? He’s probably going back to 185.”
Until we find out, all Teixeira (32-7) can do is sit and wait for the division to work itself out. In the meantime, Aleksander Rakic will attempt to throw his name into the championship hat with a victory over Santos, which also takes place at UFC 259 in March.
No telling who reigns supreme by the end of 2021.