Third-ranked UFC light heavyweight Glover Teixeira doesn’t want to make excuses regarding his unanimous-decision loss to Jon Jones in their title fight at UFC 172.
Teixeira, however, offered an explanation for his lackluster performance that resulted in his first career UFC setback to MMAFighting.com’s Guilherme Cruz.
That shoulder crank in the first round really hurt me. I regret letting him do that, it was a big mistake. But there’s nothing I can do about it now. After the first round, I had no punching power, and I had to push him with my left arm in the clinch, so I pretty much tired my both shoulders. I have to evolve in a lot of aspects of the fight, there’s not much to say.
Because of Jones’ wicked first-round shoulder crank on Teixeira, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt who’s never been submitted, the 34-year-old Brazilian will need surgery to repair his torn labrum.
Regardless of the fight’s lopsided outcome, Teixeira, unbeaten since 2005 prior to UFC 172, still talked about squandered opportunities against “Bones.”
“I’m disappointed with the fight and the things I let him do. Some things I thought would be harder to do, like blocking his kicks and closing the distance, but it was easier than I thought. I can’t say ‘Oh, if I had the chance to close the distance and hit him.’ I had that chance.”
Taking advantage of his 84.5-inch reach, Jones outstruck Teixeira, 158-65, including 138-53 in the significant strikes category, according to FightMetric.
Jones suffered his lone career loss in a disqualification against Matt Hamill in 2009. He has defended his 205-pound belt a record seven times.
Teixeira won his first five bouts in the UFC, including two by submission and two by TKO.
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