Glover Teixeira failed to defend his light heavyweight title in his first outing as champ, succumbing to a rear naked choke at the hands of Jiri Prochazka. Remarkably, this came after Teixeira attempted a guillotine submission, and it’s arguable that had the champ not gone for the submission, he’d still have the belt today.
Teixeira told Trocação Franca that he knows exactly where he went wrong with the submission, and that watching it over again is too emotional to handle.
“He put his head down and his neck fell right into my guillotine. I didn’t go for it, he gave it to me. I could have been more patient, of course. I kind of jumped the gun. But the same way he caught me later.
We think that when someone is hurt and tired you’ll catch him with a guillotine and he’ll tap quickly, sometimes he goes out quickly too.
Glover Teixeira “Feels Like Crying” Watching Failed Jiri Prochazka Guillotine Attempt
I’ve always said this, anyone can submit anyone [in MMA]. You can put Roger Gracie in there, who has the best jiu-jitsu in the world. If someone knocks him down and he’s hurt, you can get him with a rear-naked choke. You’ll compete in jiu-jitsu with Rodolfo Vieira and you won’t catch him, I bet that, but it happens in MMA. And it happened with me.
But the guillotine, man — I feel like crying watching it again. F***.
There’s a lot that goes on in a fight and you’ll learn from it. ‘I could’ve done this or that.’ I always go back and watch it to fix my mistakes, regardless of winning or losing. I’m always criticizing myself and fixing my mistakes. But it is what it is.”
Teixeira dominated the fight as far as jiu-jitsu was concerned, a point that makes this defeat harder to swallow than most.
“Someone will say, ‘F***, he was on the side, there’s no [reason to tap]. How did he tap?’ I tapped.
There’s no way around this, I tapped because I was almost desperate, so much so that I stayed there on the ground after the fight ended. Everything went dark, I was going out already. Not tapping wouldn’t have changed the result of the fight.
But I dominated the jiu-jitsu [exchanges] the entire time!
There were some times I dominated on the feet, too. There were some times I lost on the feet, but I always dominated on the ground. I was on the bottom a few times but always defended his ground and pound. That’s the reality, I dominated on the ground but was caught in the last minute. Like a punch, someone dominating the entire fight and a punch lands.”
Will Glover Teixeira ever underestimate an opponent again? Let us know in the comments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqKKwO6YGsg
