Glover Teixeira explains decision to stay retired despite itch to fight again
Glover Teixeira misses fighting when he’s in town for a UFC event, especially when his close friend and now-UFC champion Alex Pereira is in action. But at this moment, he feels he’s on a different mission.
The former 205-pound champion announced his retirement after a thrilling display of heart against Jamahal Hill, coming up short for the vacant belt in a 25-minute battle this past January in Rio de Janeiro. He explained on MMA Fighting’s Trocação Franca podcast why he isn’t considering a comeback.
“I told ‘Poatan’ [Pereira] when we were waiting to walk out [at UFC 295] that I missed that a little bit,” Teixeira said with a laugh. “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.
“I’m enjoying the moment. I don’t know what it is, but I’m in a state in my life, even before I won the belt, that I’m in a state of appreciation, of gratitude for having everything I have and accomplishing everything I’ve accomplished.”
Teixeira credits meditation for reaching this level of “inner peace.” Hhe loves to sit at his backyard in Danbury, Conn., to “read a book and listen to birds sing.”
“It’s an immense joy of simply being alive,” Teixeira said. “We don’t know when we’re leaving. I don’t know if that’s good or bad, you get confused sometimes, so I call Lyoto [Machida] to talk, because he’s been through that, as well. But I’m in a comfort zone, you know? I’m very comfortable where I’m at right now, and sometimes we think like, ‘You have to get out of your comfort zone.’ But where to?
“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 [Prochazka], 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 transitioned from fighter to coach and mentor, assisting Pereira in pursuing the UFC belt that was his in the past. Pereira knocked out Jiri Prochazka in the main event of UFC 295 at Madison Square Garden earlier this month to join the very exclusive two-division champion club.
“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.”
The 44-year-old veteran said “it’s a joy” to work with Pereira in Connecticut and that their relationship is what all fighters should aspire to have one day.
“I love his family,” Teixeira said. “I’m a man of peace and I like everybody. I try to spread love to people, especially when you receive real love back. We transfer love and kindness, but it has got to be a mirror. Instead of absorbing all that kindness and love, to give it back.”
“Someone wrote a comment one day, ‘Don’t trust a person that doesn’t like Glover and Poatan,’ and that’s true,” he added. “Not just me and Poatan, but Khabib [Nurmagomedov] and [Islam] Makhachev, [Daniel] Cormier and Cain Velasquez, myself and Chuck Liddell. It’s a friendship where you can see love, that we want the best for each other. He also wants what’s best for me.
“[Pereira] had a fight booked for the next week but went to my parade at 10 p.m. to celebrate when I won the belt. I’m like, ‘Go to bed, man, you’re fighting next week.’ That shows the friendship we have. To not like this, you’re either jealous for not having a friend like that, or you just have hate in your heart. We show the next generation that there’s no I in team.”