Sandwiched between the Benson Henderson and Anthony Pettis super rematch at UFC 164 and Jon Jones’ battle with Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 165, the Ryan Bader-Glover Teixeira scrap at UFC Fight Night 28 isn’t getting its due.
These two fighters are among the best at light heavyweight. I’m especially eager to see if Teixeira can continue to ascend up the rankings at 205 pounds. He hasn’t lost a fight in over eight years, and Bader has only lost to future Hall of Famers Lyoto Machida, Tito Ortiz and Jones.
This should be a good scrap, but I expect Teixeira to win by KO. Bader has shown the ability to knock off fighters who can’t handle his wrestling. Teixeira would definitely prefer to stand and trade, but his takedown defense is good enough to keep him from being manhandled by Bader.
In anticipation of the bout, I took to UFC Undisputed 3 again to simulate the fight. The game has a pretty expansive roster, though it will almost certainly be topped by the new EA Sports UFC due out in the spring—but Teixeira hadn’t quite made his mark in the UFC when the game was released.
That means I had to flex my create-a-fighter muscles to bring Teixeira to life in the game. I did the best I could recreating his face and body type. His stats are based on his career record, KOs, submissions and his stats at FightMetric.com.
The skill level for the simulation was set at Ultimate, and the stamina was set to Simulation. For those who are interested in watching the highlights of the fight, you can stop reading now.
If you just want to know the result, Bader won after a back-and-forth battle saw both men stunned and in trouble. A vicious counter left hand knocked Teixeira out cold in the third round.
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