Glover Teixeira wants to defend his title on home turf.
Teixeira realized a lifelong dream when he became the new UFC light heavyweight champion following a second-round submission win over Jan Blachowicz at UFC 267 back in October.
It’s been nearly two months since the 40-year-old earned UFC gold as he has been relaxing and enjoying the moment ahead of his first title defense which will more than likely be against the red-hot Jiri Prochazka.
So when it could happen? Ideally, the sooner, the better.
However, Teixeira is only planning on training again in January. And the timing would work as well as recent reports stated that the UFC could return to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil on May 7.
Retorno marcado! UFC volta ao Brasil com card no dia 7 de maio no Rio de Janeirohttps://t.co/IWU4XOgQZz
— Raphael Marinho (@raphamarinho) December 16, 2021
Glover Teixeira: Fighting In Brazil Would Be Fun
Nothing would be more ideal than headlining a first title defense in Brazil and that’s the event Teixeira would ideally like to face Prochazka in.
“For sure in Brazil,” Teixeira told Sherdog in a recent interview. “Like it’s meant to be. I said right after my fight with Blachowicz — in a perfect scenario would be May for myself because I want to relax, enjoy this moment and that was a hard year for me. You know, hardcore, focused 100 percent for the fight.
“I want a few months off, a couple months off, and I want to get back beginning of January… I told everybody May would be perfect time. And May is the card in Brazil. Who knows? Maybe it’s a possibility and it’d be fun.”
The UFC holding an event in Brazil would be the first one held in a foreign country other than Abu Dhabi ever since the pandemic began last year.
If it does end up happening, a lot of Brazilians would likely want to compete on that card including current UFC lightweight champion Charles Oliveira.
And Teixeira would love nothing more than to have two title fights take place on that card.
“Oh man, two title fights, that would be crazy. Yeah. You know man, just wait and see!”
With Oliveira set to face Justin Gaethje next — at least for now — it would be interesting to see which one of those title fights would headline the card.
You can watch the full interview below:
