Although he misses fighting at times, Glover
Teixeira is content with retirement and focusing all his
energies on close friend Alex
Pereira.
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Teixeira hung up his gloves in January following a unanimous
decision title loss against Jamahal
Hill at UFC 283. This marked the second consecutive title loss
for the Brazilian, who was submitted by Jiri
Prochazka in a nailbiter at UFC 275 last year.
Teixeira has since turned coach and mentor for Pereira, who
recently won his second UFC title within a year. While Pereira was
walking out for his light heavyweight championship victory over
Prochazka at UFC 295, Teixeira admitted to “Poatan” that he misses
fighting sometimes.
However, the former UFC light heavyweight champ chooses to stay
retired for one major reason: Father Time. Teixeira, who has
contemplated coming out of retirement for the right amount of
money, claims that his younger self would have easily run through
his last two opponents.
“I told Poatan when we were waiting to walk out [at UFC 295] that I
missed that a little bit. But that’s not something I did for money,
I did it because I really loved it. I miss the old times, but I
it’s not like I think about coming back,” Teixeira said on
MMAFighting’s
“Trocação Franca” podcast.
“Fighting, maybe that would get me out of a comfort zone. I was
fighting and enjoying the hell out of it. I simply stopped fighting
because I thought I lost to some guys — even Jiri and that last
fight with Jamahal. Not taking anything away from those guys, but I
felt it was the age factor, really. I was getting slower, weaker.
F—, 35-year-old me would trash those guys. But it’s time,
right?”
Teixeira decided to invest all his resources in Pereira because he
thought his protege had the talent to surpass him. The former champ
believes his investment has paid off.
“It’s time to move on, and what better way than that, when you see
someone that can do the job better than you?” Teixeira said. “And
instead of feeling jealous or resentful about it, you help him with
everything you got so he gets even better? That’s what we’re doing
here with Poatan. When I saw that ‘Poatan’ was doing it better than
me, especially when he said he planned on going to light
heavyweight, I thought, ‘I’ll bet all my chips and put all my
energy on him, because I’m sure he’ll do it better.’ And he’s doing
it.”