For a long time, it was difficult to separate fact from fiction with Glover Teixeira.
UFC commentator Joe Rogan said he was the second coming of Chuck Liddell. A grappler-turned-power-puncher, there were few men that could keep him on his back and few who could handle him on his feet. Whether Rogan actually believed it, or whether it was part of a carefully crafted promotional ploy to build up his inevitable fight with unstoppable then-champion Jon Jones, is up for debate.
In reality, Teixeira was something of a light heavyweight Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva. He had dynamite in his hands, certainly. His grappling wasn’t shabby, either. The trouble, though, was that he had no way to force opponents into playing to those strengths and would struggle when he wasn’t either brawling or rolling on the mat.
The smoke and mirrors when it came to Teixeira were dispelled when Jones savagely mauled him at UFC 172. He was exposed, however, when Phil Davis out-wrestled him at UFC 179.
At the time, it felt like the UFC had conned fans into buying into Teixeira. A loss to Jones was one thing, but being soundly defeated by Davis, who was coming off a tough loss to Anthony “Rumble” Johnson, was quite another. At this point, it seemed like Teixeira was doomed to midcard gatekeeper status for life.
However, the then-34-year-old dog learned some new tricks.
When Teixeira submitted Ovince Saint Preux at UFC Fight Night 73, it was a sign that he was still in the upper echelon of the division. When he followed that up with a brutal knockout of Patrick Cummins at UFC Fight Night 77, it showed that he had plugged some of the holes in his wrestling game that Davis exposed.
At UFC on Fox 19, Teixeira showed that his new, disciplined aggression was something to fear by knocking out Rashad Evans.
While Evans has not aged gracefully over the last few years, he has never been regarded as an easy out. A crafty wrestler and accurate striker, the former light heavyweight champ has long been able to hang with the best light heavyweights in the division. In a 20-fight career where he has almost exclusively faced the best in the world, he had only ever been finished once and had only ever been truly dominated by the ever-dominant Jones.
Teixeira, though, handed him the most emphatic loss of his career. Teixeira spent all 108 seconds of the fight stalking Evans along the perimeter of the cage. When the Brazilian finally caught up to him, he stung him with a right uppercut before putting him to sleep with a left hook.
It’s a performance that puts Teixeira right back into the title picture and, unfortunately, shuts the door on Evans’ days as a top-10 light heavyweight. While Teixeira will have to wait for the results of Jones vs. Saint Preux at UFC 197 and the title fight that will follow, this is a crowning moment for him.
He is finally, finally as good as he was hyped to be.
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