New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
‘I’m just enjoying being champion’
MMA fighter Glover Teixeira honored in hometown with parade
DANBURY — It would be hard to imagine a bigger triumph for a story with such humble beginnings.
When she first saw him at the Danbury War Memorial, he was 260 pounds, knew very little English and was working landscaping jobs after arriving here from a small mountain town in Brazil.
He had a smile that lit up the room, and she knew he was a good person.
“We were poor and young and broke, so we eloped,” said Ingrid Teixeira about the man she married 20 years ago. “We never had a wedding.”
Next week Ingrid and her husband will enjoy an honor few everyday people experience — a citywide parade to toast a world championship victory.
Glover Teixeira, a 205-pound mixed martial arts fighter, surprised everyone except perhaps his wife on Oct. 30 by winning the UFC Light Heavyweight title fight in the United Arab Emirates.
While Danbury on Nov. 14 will toast a local hero and an adopted son who at age 42 is the oldest first-time world champion in UFC history, Ingrid and Glover Teixeira will savor the satisfaction of achieving what they have always dreamed.
“I’m different than most girls — I didn’t ever have any doubts,” Ingrid Teixeira said about her husband’s ultimate goal as a professional MMA fighter. “To see the love of your life reach his goal, on scale of one to 10, this is a 10.” Glover Teixeira agrees.
“You know, man, right now, I’m just enjoying being champion,” he said.
What enjoying himself means now as champion is different than what enjoyment meant seven years ago when he lost his first shot at the light heavyweight title.
Today, Teixeira is coaching young fighters from the gym he opened in Danbury and later moved to Bethel. Teixeira is more involved in coaching prospects like 24-year-old Danbury native Fernely Feliz Jr., and Teixeira is more conscientious about the costs of celebration on his aging body.
“Am I going to go out to a bar right now and order a beer and get fat? No,” says Teixeira. “I have to say “no” to a lot of things I love, but I believe in doing the right thing now, you know?”
Former longtime Danbury mayor Mark Boughton is among Teixeira’s biggest fans.
“Glover is a class act all the way; he’s a warrior but he is kind, helpful and a great role model for the kids,” Boughton said. “He is completely reflective of the American dream and what this country is all about, and we are so proud to have him be a son of Danbury who represents our city and our state and our nation, because we can’t say enough good things about him.”
Glover Teixeira says he has always felt a close allegiance with Danbury.
“I’m going to stay in Danbury to help these kids keep it going because Danbury is a fighting town,” Teixeira said. “I am the first champion, but I am not going to be the last.”
While details of the Nov. 14 parade needed to be confirmed with the city police department before more information could be released, the plan is to parade the Teixeiras down Main Street,” Mayor Joe Cavo said on Friday.
“It is an incredible story for him and a great story for Danbury and we are all united around him,” Cavo said. “He may not be a native of Danbury, but he’s ours and we claim him.”
The inspiring part of Teixeira’s story is not only how he rose from humble beginnings to be crowned UFC’s Light Heavyweight champion, but that Teixeira did it two days after his 42nd birthday, Cavo said.
“Age and wisdom did it for him,” Cavo said. Teixeira agrees.
Undefeated in his last five fights and ranked in UFC’s top five, Teixeira knew he needed something more.
“I knocked on the door a couple of times for the championship and it didn’t happen,” Teixeira said. “Something was missing, so I started thinking to myself in everything I was doing in my life, was it going to be better for me? Was it going to help make me champion?”
Winning the title further confirms for Teixeira the importance of patience and discipline.
“I want to make people believe that it is never too late if you believe in your dream,” Teixeira said.