Preview: UFC Fight Night 134 ‘Shogun vs. Smith’

finisher
/ˈfɪnɪʃə/
noun
synonym: @GloverTeixeira #UFCHamburg pic.twitter.com/izJyUaaLtt

— UFC (@ufc) July 19, 2018

Light Heavyweights
Glover Teixeira (27-6) vs. Corey Anderson (10-4)
Odds: Teixeira (-165), Anderson (+145)

Due to visa issues, it took a few more years than everyone would've wanted for Glover Teixeira to sign with the UFC, but once he did, he proved to be worth the wait; upon his UFC debut in 2012, he quickly reeled off five straight wins, and within two years, was challenging Jon Jones for the light heavyweight title at UFC 172. Teixeira acquitted himself well, even if he lost via one-sided decision, and since then, has occupied an odd place in the light heavyweight landscape, settling in somewhere between contender and gatekeeper. A 13-second knockout at the hands of Anthony Johnson and a one-sided loss to Alexander Gustafsson stopped Teixeira's momentum when he looked on the verge of becoming top contender, but other than that, Teixeira has handily turned back all comers, usually in the form of one of light heavyweight's up-and-coming prospects. Coming off the loss to Gustafsson, Teixeira's last win, over Misha Cirkunov, proved that he is still someone to fear; despite being the solid underdog against a younger, stronger grappler, it took less than three minutes for Teixeira to reverse position on a takedown and dominate Cirkunov on the ground for a stoppage win. Teixeira was slated to face Ilir Latifi in a surprisingly crucial light heavyweight bout, but with Latifi injured, it's up to Teixeira to once again turn away a prospect, this time in the form of New Jersey's Corey Anderson.

Since coming to UFC via winning the light heavyweight bracket of TUF 19, Anderson's been a tantalizing, if frustrating, prospect. A talented collegiate wrestler introduced to the sport by Ben Askren, Anderson started as a blanketing wrestler with some knockout power. But early on in his UFC career, Anderson had his hype train derailed via late knockout loss to Gian Villante, which raised questions about both Anderson's chin and, in general, whether being on the UFC roster just four fights into his career was too much, too soon for the prospect. That latter question would fall by the wayside quickly, as Anderson quickly won four of his next five fights, with the lone loss being a controversial decision to “Shogun,” but once that run got Anderson into deeper waters, questions about his durability rose again. Anderson suffered a quick knockout loss to Jimi Manuwa, and then had a fight with St. Preux that showed both the positives and negatives of his game; Anderson spent the first 11 minutes of the fight dominating “OSP” with his mauling wrestling, only to suddenly suffer a knockout loss when St. Preux uncorked a beautiful head kick. Anderson's teammate, former lightweight champ Frankie Edgar, would typically make for a solid template for most fighters to build off of, but there's a chance that style of fighting has given Anderson a clear ceiling; whether it's Anderson not being as durable as Edgar, or just Anderson having to deal with the harder hitters at light heavyweight, he probably needs to find a way to better put away opponents before they can turn things around on him.

Light heavyweight has been a division full of crossroads fights lately, and this is yet another; Teixeira's nearing his 39th birthday, while Anderson still has tremendous potential and may just have been forced to work out the kinks on the big stage. So, this is a fight that Anderson will likely be able to win sooner rather than later. But sooner isn't quite now, and until Teixeira shows signs of slippage, I'll have to take the Brazilian here. Anderson will likely have success early with his strong wrestling game, but Teixeira's weathered early storms from prospects before; his fights against both St. Preux and Patrick Cummins saw Teixeira keep his composure during rough early goings and eventually find an opening. I'll have to assume the same happens here; all it takes is one stuffed takedown for Teixeira to keep things on the feet, and if this fight winds up standing for a decent amount of time, Teixeira should be able to find Anderson's chin and derail things from there. I'm still high on Anderson, and think he could essentially be the new Ryan Bader in terms of suffering a bunch of frustrating high-profile defeats before becoming an excellent fighter, but this is Teixeira's fight to lose. My pick is Teixeira via second-round knockout.

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