Teixeira Vs. Prochazka Pushed Back Until June

With a lightweight title already on the cards for May, the UFC has pushed the Teixeira vs. Prochazka war for the 205 pound strap to June.

We’ll have to wait just a little longer for Glover Teixeira to make his first UFC light heavyweight title defense.

On Saturday night Glover made the announcement on Brazilian MMA TV channel Combate that his fight against Jiri Prochazka, originally set for UFC 274 on May 7th, would now take place at UFC 275 in June. No reason was given, but considering UFC 274 is no longer happening in Brazil as originally planned the champ doesn’t mind much.

“It will be moved to June, they just said,” Teixeira said (translated from Portuguese by MMA Fighting). “We don’t have the date yet. It won’t be in Brazil (so I don’t care). I’d be pissed if it was May 7 in Brazil and it got moved!”

The top of UFC 274 still looks pretty good with the UFC lightweight title fight between champ Charles Oliveira and challenger Justin Gaethje.

Glover Teixeira took the 205 pound strap off Jan Blachowicz at UFC 267 in October of 2021. It was a fight that many expected Jan to win — he was a -300 favorite to Glover’s +225 dog status. And why not? Blachowicz was coming off tactically brilliant decision win against Israel Adesanya, and “Old Man Glover” as he’s often called might be on a five fight win streak but was pushing 42 years of age.

That didn’t stop Teixeira from tapping Blachowicz out halfway through the second round of their fight (watch the highlights and finish here).

We’ll see whether the oddsmakers are wrong again in June with 29 year old Jiri Prochazka, who is a -170 favorite to Glover’s +150 dog. Tighter odds … people are underestimating Teixeira less. But it’s hard to see Jiri’s violent knockout wins (10 in a row spanning back to 2017, 25 in total) and think he may be too much for the elder Brazilian.

How’s his ground game, tho?