Nothing came easy in his MMA career for Glover Teixeira. He was 19 fights in before he finally made it to the UFC in 2012. He had to work as a landscaper to pay the bills because fighters on the regional circuit rarely make enough money to survive only on their fight-related income.
He was dominated in his first UFC title shot in 2014 by Jon Jones, and when he lost to Corey Anderson on July 22, 2018, in Hamburg, Germany, it was three losses in his last five fights.
But at an age when fighters are moving on to the next stage of their lives, Teixeira reinvented himself and on Saturday at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi in the main event of UFC 267, captured the UFC title.