Glover Teixeira knows he’s closer to the end of the road than the beginning. Teixiera has found success of late, however, and discussed that, and who he sees as the GOAT ahead of UFC Vancouver.
Vancouver, BC — The light heavyweight landscape has changed considerably since Glover Teixeira stepped into the octagon with Jon Jones in 2014. Teixeira (29-7) returns this Saturday at UFC Vancouver against Nikita Krylov, to a division where middleweights have invaded, and Jon Jones has all but cleared the weight class of contenders.
Teixeira, at 39, has found success this year, with two wins so far in 2019. The key to that, he told Cageside Press and other media outlets at Thursday’s UFC Vancouver media day, has been “discipline. Discipline, hard work. But mostly discipline. ”
“I’m always a hard worker,” said Teixeira. “Always in my career, I think I work harder than everybody. I’m a hard, hard worker. But I was doing way too long of a camp, [suffering] injuries a lot. In 2017, 2018 I had an issue with my shoulder, my hip. But now I feel great, I feel great this year.”
You might take it as Teixeira working smarter now, in a disciplined fashion, rather than just going hard. Which will be important as light heavyweight undergoes a paradigm shift. There’s a youth movement. A size movement. At Wednesday’s open workouts, Teixeira said he was on board with the recent influx of middleweights moving up to his 205lb weight class.
However, asked if any had a real shot at Jon Jones, Teixeira pointed out that “they got to go through us first.”
“They got to go through us first,” he reiterated. “Could they beat us? You know, they jump into the light heavyweight division, it’s kind of like ‘hey man, this is our thing over here, this is our ocean.'”
“Do they got a shot at Jon Jones? Yeah, but they’re not just going to cut me and fight Jon Jones, right? They’re going to have to go through some of the top guys first,” he continued.
The subject is Jones is an interesting one. Teixeira shared the cage with Jones in the champ’s prime. Of late, another name has entered the Greatest of All Time conversation: Khabib Nurmagomedov.
“I think Jon Jones is up there for sure,” said Teixeira. However, “after I saw Khabib’s last fight— Dustin Poirier, I saw that kid train, and I saw how good he is. The way [Khabib] dominated Dustin Poirier, is like, in my mind, he’s definitely the number one pound-for-pound.”
“Jon Jones has won more title defenses, but he hasn’t dominated opponents the way Khabib has been,” Teixeira continued. “Khabib looks like way too much. He’s above, he’s way above the guys. He’s like a ten, and all the people fighting him are sevens.”
Watch the full UFC Vancouver (UFC Fight Night 158) media day scrum with Glover Teixeira above!
