Teixeira rules out full retirement after boxing Shogun Rua, hints at influencer bouts next

Glover Teixeira stepped back into competition at Spaten Fight Night 3 in São Paulo on August 29 to box fellow former UFC light heavyweight champion Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua — and despite being 46 years old, he is not ready to close the book on his fighting career.

While Rua confirmed earlier this week that the eight-round boxing clash would be his final bout, Teixeira is leaving the door open. “I don’t think I’m going to have a [long] career after this, but I say it’s not my last fight because who knows?” Teixeira said at the pre-fight press conference. “Maybe a good match-up against someone my age. I’ll turn 47 two months after this fight, so I’m not looking to build a career. I’ll leave that to the younger guys. But it’s not my last fight.”

Teixeira also joked that his next outing could be a considerably softer assignment. Referencing former boxing champion Acelino ‘Popó’ Freitas, who has made a second career in Brazil fighting social media personalities, Teixeira suggested he might follow a similar path. “Who knows, maybe I’ll fight one of these influencers, like ‘Popó’ did, an easier fight,” he said with a laugh. “They put me against Shogun, come on. They can put me against ‘Bambam’, easier match-ups.”

The bout itself carries a long history. Teixeira and Rua came close to meeting inside the UFC octagon on multiple occasions, but the fight never materialised. Now it is finally happening — albeit under boxing rules that strip both men of their most dangerous tools. “I always imagined fighting Shogun thinking about taking him down,” Teixeira said. “But now they’ve taken away my wrestling, while also taking away his knees and kicks. We’re going to try to do this with our hands only.”

Teixeira spoke warmly of his opponent, recalling watching Rua compete in PRIDE when he was still an emerging fighter. “There were three guys in PRIDE that I dreamed of fighting: Rampage Jackson, Shogun, and Ricardo Arona. I fought Rampage, and now I have the opportunity to fight Shogun,” he said. He pointed to Rua’s legendary clash with Dan Henderson as his favourite Shogun performance, and noted that he himself was part of a UFC Fight of the Year contender against Jiří Procházka. “Hopefully we put on a good fight. I don’t want it to be the fight of the year because that means way too much violence,” he added, laughing.

Both men originally retired from MMA on the same night in the UFC, making their São Paulo meeting a reunion of two of the sport’s most celebrated light heavyweights.