Three long years after his intended move to the U.S. and to the employment of Zuffa, Glover Teixeira made his big stage debut at UFC 146 – and what a debut it was. Teixeira promptly broke through the defenses of Kyle Kingsbury in the stand-up, knocked him down quickly and then submitted him with a very tight arm triangle from the S-mount position.
Teixeira moves to 18-2 and has not lost since 2005. Granted, his level of competition has not been particularly good at all, but only two of his eighteen wins have been by decision. He has destroyed everyone put in front of him in the last several years and with his move to the UFC, Glover can finally test himself against the best.
Kingsbury walks away with an 11-4 record. He is still 4-3 in the UFC and has received two bonuses for his efforts previously. Taking the bout with Teixeira showed his courage and belief in his own abilities and Kingsbury actually moved to engage on the feet and never ran away from the punches that were landing. It was a valiant attempt, but unfortunately, Kingsbury was unable to put up much of a fight.
What was the high spot of this fight?
The fight took less than two minutes and essentially all of it could go right into Glover’s highlight reel. Watching Glover land hook after uppercut after hook after uppercut on Kingsbury until the knockdown was awe-inspiring.
Where do these guys go from here?
To be honest, Kingsbury probably faces a “win or get cut” situation in his next bout. He’s had two Fight of the Night performances in his seven UFC appearances, but the two straight losses to Stephan Bonnar and Glover means that he needs a win or a particularly memorable performance to stay in the promotion. Fighting the loser of Anthony Perosh and Ryan Jimmo makes sense for a Kingsbury resurgence.
In an ideal world, Glover Teixeira gets jumped right into the main card as to build the “Wow, this guy can beat anybody” bandwagon into a fever pitch worthy of a title shot. However, with the dearth of ranked LHWs in the UFC, he probably has to leapfrog into fighting someone several levels above Kingsbury. The winner of the match between Forrest Griffin and Tito Ortiz makes some sense for him, but maybe not as much for them. This is going to be tricky matchmaking and I cannot really hazard a guess as to which big name will actually agree to fight Teixeira.
Watch it now, later or never?
Now. This probably should be your first fight to watch for UFC 146. Pay attention to the cornermen for Glover too – seeing Chuck Liddell, John Hackleman, Pedro Rizzo and Marco Ruas was a blast from the past.
After the jump, all the related UFC 146 links you could want.
UFC 146: Dos Santos Vs. Mir Results – Heavyweight Rankings Fallout
UFC 146 Results: Sunday Perspective
UFC 146 Results: Junior Dos Santos Defends Title With Second-Round TKO Win Over Frank Mir
UFC 146 Results: Cain Velasquez Dominates Antonio Silva
UFC 146 Results: Stipe Miocic Stops Shane Del Rosario In Round Two
UFC 146 Results: Stefan Struve Armbars Lavar Johnson Early
UFC 146 Results: Darren Elkins Takes Decision Over Diego Brandao
UFC 146 Results: Jamie Varner Stops Edson Barboza Via TKO
UFC 146 Results: C.B. Dollaway Decisions Jason ‘Mayhem’ Miller
UFC 146 Results: Dan Hardy Knocks Out Duane Ludwig
UFC 146 Results: Paul Sass Submits Jacob Volkmann Early
UFC 146 Results: Glover Teixeira Annihilates Kyle Kingsbury
UFC 146 Results: Mike Brown Wins Decision Over Daniel Pineda
UFC 146: Dos Santos Vs. Mir – Live Results And Play-By-Play For Undercard
UFC 146: Dos Santos Vs. Mir – Live Results And Play-By-Play For PPV Main Card