After just one fight under the UFC banner, UFC newcomer Glover Teixeira has quickly become one of the most feared fighters in the UFC's light-heavyweight division.
Teixeira (18-2) made his much anticipated UFC debut at UFC 146 against dangerous UFC veteran, Kyle Kingsbury. He made quick work of the veteran rocking him several times on the feet, before taking him down, mounting him, and submitted him with an arm triangle choke that forced a tap just two minutes into the fight.
Since then, several top contenders in the light-heavyweight division have expressed hesitancy when asked to face the Brazilian stand out at upcoming UFC events.
One of those fighters is former champion Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, who received a lot of heat from fans when he turned down a fight against Teixeira, however, Teixeira believes that a lot of the scrutiny Shogun received was unnecessary.
"He has fought the greatest fighters out there." Glover Teixeira told MMAInterviews.tv "Shogun is a great fighter. He is a warrior; we all know this. People say something, but its a manager's decision."
Teixeira is scheduled to face off in the Octagon against fellow Brazilian Fabio Maldonado at UFC 153 on Oct. 13 at the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The event will air live on pay-per-view in the U.S, but is also scheduled to air live on Brazilian national TV where viewing numbers are expected to break the previous record of 50 million viewers set by UFC 142 earlier this year.
With the current explosion of MMA in the Brazilian culture, and TV ratings for UFC events reaching astronomical numbers, Teixeira believes it's only a mater of time before MMA overtakes soccer as the nations most popular sport.
"MMA has always been big," Glover Teixeira said. "But after the UFC went over there it's crazy. I never thought I would see the day where I would say this; the UFC will be bigger than soccer, and I believe its gonna be, because people are disappointed with soccer anyways. All the soccer players are doing crazy stuff over there, and not playing well. Brazil not doing very well lately in the games. People are just talking more about fighting than soccer.
"All the fans, the soccer fans when they lose or whatever, they are disappointed, they always say, 'Yeah, the time now is MMA man, because in mma we have Jose Aldo, Junior Dos Santos, Lyoto, Anderson Silva, and Minotauro.' The great fighters you know. So they always say those warriors man, those guys go over there and they don't play. Soccer is the national passion over there, but I think I'll see the day man. I want to be champion when that day comes."