Brazilian light heavyweight Glover Teixeira extended his 17-fight unbeaten run on Saturday at UFC 153 when he stopped Fabio Maldonado at the end of the second round. It was only his second time fighting for the UFC, but already the 32-year-old is being talked of as the next big thing in MMA.
The hype around the fighter has been growing ever since UFC president Dana White revealed that former light heavyweight champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua turned down a fight against Teixeira back in the summer.
Rua was accused of ducking the then relatively unknown Teixeira, a claim he has denied emphatically. However, accusations that Shogun was ready to be cut rather than face Teixeira, has given the fighter a mystique few others can command.
That mystique was chipped away on Saturday after Teixeira brutally pummelled Maldonado for two full rounds. The hype was real.
Maldonado, a former boxer with a 22-0 record, had never been TKO’d in his entire career, and it was only the lion heart he displayed which carried him through Teixeira’s onslaught.
However, Teixeira didn’t have it all his own way. Sloppy defence in the first round had him on wobbly legs after a Maldonado counter, and the match looked touch-and-go for a second.
But displaying his elite fighter credentials, Teixeira was able to pull himself together quickly, regroup, and finish off his opponent in the second.
Of course, we can’t allow ourselves to get carried away by his one performance. It’s clear that Teixeira has latent talent, and years of training with Chuck Liddell has fashioned a monster in the cage. But Maldonado, already on a two-fight losing streak, can hardly be considered a test for Teixeira, who struggled to get into the UFC for years due to visa problems.
Nor was he the most impressive light heavyweight on the night.
Phil Davis, in the fight before, was able to put away a much more dangerous Wagner Prado by submission in the second round, in what was his best performance to date.
While Teixeira’s win, which built off his first round submission of Kyle Kingsbury in May, has introduced a new force to be reckoned with at 205 lbs, he still needs a top-ranked opponent before we can talk of him as a future champion.
And both Teixeira, and White his biggest fan, know this. At the post-fight press conference, White is reported to have said that Teixeira’s “going to have to fight one of the top guys before we start talking about title shots.”
That opponent could come in the shape of Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, who was supposed to fight Teixeira on Saturday but had to pull out due to an injury. And even though Jackson is coming off two losses, he still carries enough of a name in the sport to accelerate Teixeira’s march towards the title should he win.
“I’d like to fight Quinton Jackson,” Teixeira stated after his win. “I never talked [expletive] about him. He was my idol. I loved that guy coming up in Pride, but he says I was talking bad about him. I’m not talking bad about him. I’m not afraid of no man… Step in the ring with me, I’ll fight anyone.”
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