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Former UFC light heavyweight champion Glover Teixeira is disappointed with the UFC's decision to make the co-main event fight between Jan Blachowicz and Magomed Ankalaev the title fight after current champ Jiri Prochazka vacated the belt due to injury.
UFC 282's headliner match was supposed to feature a rematch for the light heavyweight title between Glover Teixeira and Jiri Prochazka. Unfortunately, the fight was called off after Prochazka announced a severe shoulder injury sustained during training camp.
In an interview with MMAFIghting following the matter, Glover Teixeira revealed that he was offered to fight for the title against Magomed Ankalaev. But when the Brazilian asked for a little more time to prepare himself for the fight, the matchmakers booked the title fight between Blachowicz and Ankalaev:
"“I’m a happy and grateful man. You know that saying, you do 1,000 things for someone but become the worst man if you don’t do one thing? I won’t say that about the UFC, but they really messed up that day. I spent with a camp and now they took me away from the title fight. I agreed to fight both guys, the only thing I asked was more time to fight Ankalaev."
The 43-year-old further claimed that he is quite serious about getting the title "back to Brazil." He added that he only wanted some more time so that he can give his all out against his opponent:
"I’m a high-level fighter and I don’t want to be the guy that goes in there, gets kicked in the arm and goes down just for the money.I give my blood and life inside the octagon. You’ve all watched my fights before, I leave everything in there. I want to bring the belt back Brazil and for myself, and I believe I can do it."
'Denisa' apologizes to supposed opponent Glover Teixeira after pulling out of fight due to injury
After announcing the news of his shoulder injury and pull-out from the fight, Jiri Prochazka took to his official Instagram handle to apologize to Glover Teixeira for pulling out of the fight at the last minute:
"I have to say sorry to Glover... I canceled that fight so [close] to the fight. And that's life. So congratulations to Ankalaev and Blachowicz for the title chance.
Later in the video, the Czech fighter stated that he will give it his all to reclaim the belt once he is back completely recovered:
"But still, I feel like a champion and after I will be back, I will come for the title and more. My targets are higher than just the title. I'll be back."
Check out the clip shared by Prochakza below:
The promotion had to book a new headliner and reshuffle the entire fight card. Despite the recent fallout from the upcoming UFC 282 fight event, the UFC 282 card remains one of the best potential fight cards the UFC has put forth in 2022.
