Glover Teixeira gets parade in hometown, key to city after winning UFC light heavyweight title (Video)
Glover Teixeira is being treated like royalty in Danbury, Connecticut.
Teixeira became the UFC light heavyweight champion with a second-round submission over Jan Blachowicz at UFC 267. It was a stunning performance from the Brazilian who become a first-time UFC champ at 42. After the win, when he arrived back home in Connecticut, people were waiting for him. On Monday, the celebration continued as he got a parade a key to the city.
The city of Danbury, Connecticut threw a parade in honour of @GloverTeixeira on his return to his hometown!
And they gave the champ a key to the city 🗝
📹 @AldamWill pic.twitter.com/aNfcz1spGk
— UFC on TNT Sports (@ufcontnt) November 15, 2021
Light Heavyweight UFC Champion @gloverteixeira brought the belt to Danbury and was honored with a parade on Main Street as well as the key to the city pic.twitter.com/d0h4QDIp04
— Will Aldam (@AldamWill) November 14, 2021
After the parade ended, Glover Teixeira gave a speech where he praised the people of Danbury for welcoming him and allowing him to become a UFC champion.
“I’m just so happy this is happening over here,” Teixeira said. “I come to Danbury in 1999 and people just warm hearts over here, just opened their arms for me. It’s the land of opportunity. I had a dream in Brazil to be a professional athlete. Most of the people, I have a lot of people from my town here, they know how hard it is over there.
“I couldn’t train, I couldn’t do anything and I come here and I say, ‘This is the land of opportunity, I want to be a world champion. [Former coach] Greg Davis is one of my guys there that trained with me. He was there when I say — I couldn’t speak much English — he asked me, ‘Why are you training in jiu-jitsu for?’ I said, ‘I want to be UFC champion.’”
If the parade wasn’t enough, Teixiera also received the key to the city.
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With the win at UFC 267, Teixeira is now 33-7 as a pro and prior to submitting Blachowicz, he submitted Thiago Santos, TKO’d Anthony Smith, and picked up wins over Nikita Krylov, Ion Cutelaba, and Karl Roberson during his winning streak. In his career, he also has beaten the likes of Rashad Evans, Ryan Bader, and Rampage Jackson.
