Alex Pereira celebrates with Glover Teixeira at Madison Square Garden in New York City on November 12, 2022 // Photo by Zac Pacleb/Zuffa LLC
It’s been four years since Glover Teixeira invited Alex Pereira to his MMA gym just outside of Danbury, Connecticut. Teixeira, then a top UFC heavyweight, was preparing for a main event bout against a heavy-handed Thiago Santos and figured that Pereira’s world-class striking acumen would help him overcome the odds as a two-to-one underdog.
He was right. Come fight night, Teixeira dominated Santos to win by third-round submission in a fight that propelled him to win the light heavyweight championship in his very next bout.
The career milestone for Teixeira came later than most. He was 42 when he captured the title after nearly a decade in the UFC.
Now 44, the retired Teixeira has shifted his energy from fighting to coaching. In a twist of fate, Pereira has become his star pupil. Pereira, a Glory Kickboxing champion, started focusing solely on MMA under Teixeira’s tutelage. He made his UFC debut in 2021, beating his outgunned middleweight foe by knockout.
“I said to people that he was going to be a champion within one year in the UFC,” Teixeira told RG.org. “Because of his athletic ability, his strength, and how coachable he is; he’s a guy that will listen, and he doesn’t have an ego.”
“I was very right about that,” Teixeira said.
He sure was. One year and six days into his UFC tenure, Pereira knocked out the long-reigning middleweight champion Israel Adesanya in the fourth round. Teixeira was the first to leap into the cage and embrace Pereira, lifting the 6’4” Brazilian right over his shoulder in jubilation.
But perhaps Pereira’s most impressive feat would occur the following year, when he knocked out the light heavyweight champion Jiri Prochazka to claim a second UFC title in a new weight class.
Two belts in two years, a feat unheard of in the UFC until that point, became Pereira’s reality. To make it sweeter, Pereira claimed the same light heavyweight title that once belonged to his mentor Teixeira.
For Teixeira, it was all part of the plan.
“We talked about it since the beginning. I said to him, ‘You’re going to get bigger because of the wrestling training, and eventually you’re going to have to move up,’” Teixeira said, claiming that Pereira would have to cut from around 220 pounds to make the 185-pound middleweight limit. “That’s a lot of weight, and he didn’t have that much to lose. He’s very lean.”
Still the UFC light heavyweight champion today, Pereira’s superstardom can’t be downplayed. He’s the “it” fighter in the sport right now, competing at least three times per year in some of the biggest fights in recent memory — like his main event bout at the ceremonious UFC 300, where he notched his first light heavyweight title defense against Jamahal Hill.
His activity is unparalleled, and he’s not just beating his opponents. He’s knocking them out in spectacular fashion.
Pereira has clearly found a home in Western Connecticut alongside his fellow Brazilian in Teixeira, who will be leading him to his third UFC title defense against Khalil Rountree in October. The booking came as a bit of a surprise to some UFC fans, many of whom thought the promotion would strike the iron while it’s hot and allow Pereira to try to claim a third title at heavyweight against Jon Jones.
Teixeira feels no rush, though.
“I think I feel comfortable now with 205 [pounds], happy with the weight cuts,” Teixeira said. “But also I’ll be happy if he moves up. I think he has the potential to beat anyone at heavyweight. The guy is a beast, man. His strength is like a heavyweight, he hits like a heavyweight. So it’ll be no problem.”
Like most of Pereira’s recent fights, Teixeira expects his next one against Rountree to take place mainly on the feet, where Pereira should feel right at home.
Teixeira has become accustomed to these types of fight preparations. He fought his fair share of light heavyweight strikers in his day, too. And although he’s freshly retired from fighting, he’s been coaching for the past decade.
The experience has served him well. Teixeira said he feels no different training Pereira for a UFC title fight than he does one of his other students for a bout at a local promotion.
“It was very natural,” Teixeira said of his coaching ability. “I don’t have a choice to think about it, you know? I was already a coach. It’s never, ‘Oh shit, I have to coach Alex, the biggest star in the UFC right now.’”
Still, their bond is something special. Generally as stoic as he is terrifying, Pereira appears to only muster up a grin in Teixeira’s presence. It’s a sign of mutual respect between fighters and friends, who each came a long way to settle down in a small Northeastern city.
“We’re just like two dudes over here training,” Teixeira said. “I understand a lot of his background and the same stupid jokes. So we’d say something we used to say when we were kids or something, and it’d always just bring up some memories. Right away we connected.”
A testament to his humility, Teixeira doesn’t forget how he and Pereira came together in the first place. As far as he sees it, Pereira helped him capture the UFC light heavyweight title when he brought him in for the Santos camp in 2020. Now in Pereira’s corner, Teixeira says he’s just returning the favor.
“At the end of the day, it’s just a few friends training in the garage, having fun, doing the right thing and conquering the world,” Teixeira said. “It’s all play man. At the end of our lives, we’re just going to look back at the quality moments together.”
Despite his recent success, Teixeira still doesn’t take it all too seriously.
“Sometimes, I coach with a beer in my hand,” he said.
Erik Uebelacker is a legal reporter for Courthouse News Service, where he covers high-profile trials in New York City. In his spare time, he likes to write about people punching each other in the face.
