Facing Jan Blachowicz for the UFC light heavyweight belt is nothing compared to the journey Glover Teixeira had to take just to fight in the USA.
He recently detailed the experience to the Trocação Franca podcast. Teixeira, hailing from the small Brazilian town of Sobralia, dreamed of a better life in the United States.
Barbecue, Guns, and Fighting: Glover Teixeira’s Journey to the USA
“We had no internet connection back then, we had nothing, so we could only imagine how the United States looked like. It was every kid’s dream. No one from Sobralia even tried to get a visa. We had guides that would take us there through Mexico. Most of them came back after three or four years and bought cars or houses as soon as they returned.”
But the journey to get there was fraught with danger. First, he caught a bus through South America, eventually making it to Mexico, where he and his busmates sheltered for a few days waiting for the perfect conditions to cross the border.
“I was having a lot of fun. I was 19, right? I didn’t care. I was drinking every night and getting wasted most of the time. But we went through some scary places. We were on an island in Guatemala with the [natives]. They were nice people but you could see there was no police there, there was nothing. They treated us really well, but the guides were obviously bribing everybody.
It’s dangerous. Some of my friends were troublemakers so we kept telling them to keep it cool because we were in a different place.
I stayed in Tijuana for eight days, waiting for the fog to come so the helicopter and immigration people wouldn’t see us. We had to wait for a strong fog to cross the desert at night.”
Once they were in the US, he had to stay indoors for almost two weeks, kept prisoner by the “coyotes” (people smugglers) who had brought them in.
“We had to stay in this house in San Diego for 12 days, waiting for the guide to pay the coyotes [the people who smuggled us across the border],” Teixeira said. “They didn’t let us leave [the room] before they got paid. We only ate once a day, a slice of bread with beans. I lost 26 pounds.”
He was offered the chance to cross for free, if he carried an anonymous backpack. Teixeira refused. “I’m not taking anything. Are you crazy? I don’t know what they are asking us to deliver. I think it was drugs or weapon, I don’t know. I didn’t even see it, I just said I wouldn’t take it.”
Once the coyotes were paid off, he boarded the next flight to Boston and his MMA journey was able to truly begin. If he can take out Jan Blachowicz, Glover Teixeira will be the oldest man to ever win a UFC title.
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