Glover Teixeira targets retirement after two 2022 wins, wants to ‘stay cool’ unlike Henry Cejudo

Glover Teixeira has had a wild ride in mixed martial arts (MMA). As an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) champion at age 42, the Sobralia, Minas Gerais, Brazil native can, unsurprisingly, see the end of the tunnel.

UFC 267 in Oct. 2021 acted as Teixeira’s long-awaited crowning moment when he dethroned Jan Blachowicz via second-round rear-naked choke submission (watch highlights). The win extended Teixeira’s resurgent streak to six and he’s now set to attempt to make his first successful title defense against Jiri Prochazka at UFC 275 in Singapore on June 11, 2022.

Assuming he gets by the ever-lethal former RIZIN titlist, Teixeira hopes to land a last hurrah in New York City, sailing off into the sunset. … And don’t expect any lingering callouts once he jumps out of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) test pool.

“The perfect plan would be winning this fight, which I have full focus on,” Teixeira told Mundo da Luta (h/t MMA Fighting). “And fighting one last time in November, in New York, which is close to the city I live for 20 years, and close to my gym. It would be my farewell from fighting. That’s what I’m thinking right now.

“I’ll be 43 in November,” he continued. “Regardless of being at the top, being the best of the world or not, I wanna stop this year. It will probably be my last year. I don’t wanna make this decision after a fight, but it’s what I’ve been thinking for a while. I don’t wanna retire like [Henry] Cejudo, who keeps asking for a fight all the time. I want to retire and stay cool.”

It’s safe to assume we won’t see Teixeira follow in the footsteps of the now returning Cejudo, but hey, in this sport you simply can never say never.