Glover Teixeira turns 45 at the end of the month.
That won’t stop the former UFC light heavyweight champion from making his return to competition, despite his retirement in the wake of UFC 283. When and where remains to be seen, but it sounds like the Brazilian bruiser is willing to entertain any and all options.
Even a return to UFC.
“There’s nothing [booked], but I’ll definitely go back to competition,” Teixeira said in an interview with MMA Fighting. “I keep going after challenges. It’s hard to stay [training] with no reason why, so I’ll definitely do something. I want to compete. I’ll do some jiu-jitsu, I wanna do … I don’t know, maybe boxing. Or even go back for some fights in the UFC.”
Blame his top student and current UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira.
“I’m feeling great, fighting hard with the guys in the gym,” Teixeira continued. “I’ve rolled with some wrestlers, training with Sean Strickland and ‘Poatan.’ I was doing some light sparring with ‘Poatan’ the other day, and he’s like, ‘F*ck, Glover, you have to come back!’ I’m training well, I’m feeling well. I love this. I’m not saying I want to fight, but I want to compete. If it’s jiu-jitsu, Lovato, guys like that. I wanna do some matches, that’s for sure.”
This ongoing series would make a great landing spot.
Teixeira (33-9) hung up the gloves after suffering back-to-back losses to Jiri Prochazka and Jamahal Hill, the latter of which was a particularly bloody beatdown. The best case scenario has Teixeira returning to the brain-friendly jiu-jitsu mats, where he’s defeated the likes of Dean Lister and Renato Ferreira, among others.