Despite facing off against a fighter a decade his junior, Glover Teixeira entered UFC 283 with a puncher's chance of besting Jamahal Hill to regain the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship. Sure, Teixeira came into the fight a +116 versus Hill's -142, according to FanDuel's UFC Odds, but in the UFC, all it takes is one lucky punch to push all of the odds to the side, especially when it's coming from a veteran slugger like the nickname-less Brazilian pro.
Unfortunately, that one lucky punch never came, and when the dust settled at the end of five rounds, it was Hill who saw his hand raised and was awarded the belt. Now, for fans who watched the fight, this shouldn't come as too much of a surprise, Hill was by far the more active fighter, and he rightfully received 50 scores across the board, but what did come as a surprise was what Teixeira did after the match, as once Hill was awarded his strap, the 43-year-old left his gloves in the center of the Octagon before issuing a statement to the fans in attendance about retirement.
“In reality, though, I feel like I'm too tough for my own good,” Teixeira said via a translator. “I'm too tough for my own health. I can't keep up anymore. I'm going to focus my energy on Alex Pineda. He's going to keep his belt for a while before going up to light heavyweight. You know, it's an honor to put the gloves down the same night as Shogun. I wish we were in a horse racing area where we could go no rounds, keep going in a shoot, but we're not, and, you know, I'm just not keeping up anymore”
Glover Teixeira placed his gloves in the center of the Octagon after an epic battle at #UFC283 pic.twitter.com/InEUwZPtnJ
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) January 22, 2023
Glover, if that's really the end of your UFC fighting career, you left on a high note.
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