Glover Teixeira vs Kyle Kingsbury at UFC 146 – Photo by Josh Hedges for UFC.com
Canadian fans will be disappointed to hear that an injury to Brazilian striker Thiago Silva (14-3, 1NC) has forced the light heavyweight out of an upcoming bout with Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua (20-6) at next months UFC 149 event in Calgary.
Some fans may be even more disappointed when they hear that Rua’s camp turned down a fight with exciting finisher Glover ‘The Baker’ Teixeira (18-2), who was offered the chance to replace Silva at the upcoming pay-per-view event.
MMAjunkie.com spoke to UFC president Dana White about the fight, which he is still trying to “put together” for the Canadian show.
“With Thiago hurt, we turned to Glover and asked him to go right back in to fight ‘Shogun’ at UFC 149. But ‘Shogun’s’ people are adamantly refusing to take the fight. They want nothing to do with Glover.”
“‘Shogun’ wants nothing to do with Glover,” White said. “But that’s the fight Lorenzo and I are trying to put together.”
Fans will remember Teixeira from last weekends UFC 146 event in Las Vegas where he crushed Kyl Kingsbury in the first round of their bout, ending the fight with a first round arm-triangle choke submission at 1:53. The victory was Teixeira’s sixteenth straight victory, fifteen of which have all come by submission or (T)KO. ‘The Baker’ is a prodigy of former champ Chuck Liddell.
Update: ‘Shogun’ Rua’s manager Julio Heller responded to the news through Tatame.com, saying that Silva’s injury hasn’t even been made official to them and that they haven’t even been offered a fight with Teixeira.
“I just sent a message to the UFC. I’m waiting for their call”, Heller said. “(Turning down a fight with Glover) it’s not true at all”.
Julio said they’ll wait for the UFC before making further comments, and the decision to fight Glover, or any other opponent, is in Shogun and his coach Andre Dida’s hands.
“We have to wait for the names whey’ll offer, and then we’ll see what we do”.