‘Old Man Glover’ Becomes Champ: ‘This is what I dreamed for 20 years’

Hardened veteran Glover Teixeira defied old age and savage bookie odds to take the belt off Jan Blachowicz at UFC 267.

UFC 267 was a great night of fights capped off with an emotional win for Glover Teixeira, a crafty 42 year old veteran with two decades of fighting experience. “Old Man Glover,” as he was nicknamed by fans on his run for the belt, was the heavy underdog. But that didn’t stop him from hurting Blachowicz on the feet in the second round and then finishing his opponent on the ground with a tight rear naked choke (watch the highlights here).

“I hurt him, and now I knew he was gonna worry so much about the hands too,” Glover said during the post-fight press conference. “Because he was worrying about the takedowns in the second round. Then I hurt him and I knew he was gonna worry about the punches because he was hurt. So then I took him down. I didn’t want to rush it. But of course I saw it.”

Glover credited his win to immaculate preparation. Not only did a delay in the fight from September to October give an extra month, but Teixeira had been training with Blachowicz as his target since before the Blachowicz vs. Adesanya fight in March of 2021.

“The training was amazing,” he said. “Was a long training camp. We’ve been working for Jan for a long time. When he fought Adesanya, we worked before that when I was a backup for that fight. I planned on Jan, we worked on that. The head movement, the jab, my coach kept telling me ‘He’s gonna jab a lot, watch that left hook coming in!’ It worked out good. I was very active there. Training partners were great. They were way faster … when I was there today, I felt … saw everything.”

As for how it felt to finally be a champion after 20 years of competition?

“I dunno man, it feels so amazing,” Teixeira said. “So happy. This is what I dreamed for 20 years. Twenty years on the road, ups and downs, I wanted to get this belt. I wanted to be a champion. There was a time there that I thought I would never be a champion, but I love it. I keep believing. I discipline myself the way I have to do it, and … now I own this baby.”

“You put in the work,” he added. “You put so much work towards it, so much discipline. Like Khabib said. The life of a fighter is pretty much a life as a prison because you have to put yourself in that position – avoid a lot of things, avoid birthday parties and friends getting together and just stay isolating yourself from all these distractions if you really want to get good and become a champion.”

Next up is Jiri Prochazka, who’s going to have to be patient if he wants to wait around for his title shot. After beating Blachowicz and acknowledging Jiri, Glover threw out May of 2022 as a potential date for their fight. And he repeated that desire to sit back and relax a bit after a long year preparing for his own shot.

“He is a very tough guy, man,” Teixeira said. “He’s very awkward, but a very good guy. He is a different story, but definitely a tough opponent. It’s all tough opponents here, but I’m definitely looking forward to fighting him. But right now I’m really looking forward to drinking that beer than Jan gave me and enjoying some time off.”