UFC Hamburg’s Glover Teixeira Addresses Late Opponent Change

Glover Teixeira recognizes the importance of staying on his toes.

Teixeira was scheduled to take on Ilir Latifi this Sunday (July 22). The bout was set to take place inside Barclaycard Arena in Hamburg, Germany. Latifi went down with an injury. Corey Anderson signed a new deal with the UFC and will meet Teixeira as a replacement opponent at UFC Hamburg.

Speaking to Bloody Elbow, Teixeira said he’s always ready for when plans go awry:

“I have this mentality that I have to be prepared for everything. I have to train my wrestling, my jiu jitsu, my stand up, because I already have this mentality that if you’re a guy that studies your opponent so much, and if something like this happens, it throws you off guard. It really throws you off guard. I think you have to prepare and be ready for everything and in the last couple of weeks, of course, we started watching a couple of tapes and we saw what the guy does, but that’s only in the last couple of weeks. That’s the final part of camp. You’ve got to be prepared for everything and be ready for the change because it’s not unexpected. It happens all the time in this sport. All the time.”

Teixeira currently sits at the third spot on the official UFC light heavyweight rankings. His opponent, Anderson, sits at number nine. A win for “Overtime” would see him shoot up the rankings so there’s a lot to lose for Teixeira.

The last time Teixeira was seen in action was back in Dec. 2017. He earned a first-round TKO victory over Misha Cirkunov. The win was just what Teixeira needed as he was coming off a knockout loss at the hands of Alexander Gustafsson.