“But his vision, his striking, the way he approaches a fight, the feints he uses, it’s all high-level. He has an incredibly high fight IQ and I’m learning a lot from him,” Glover Teixeira said this week, placing the spotlight on Alex Pereira even as the Brazilian prepares for one of the biggest fights of his career.
Teixeira’s praise matters because Pereira — often called poatan — will co-headline UFC White House later this month against Ciryl Gane for the interim heavyweight strap, and because Teixeira is heading in the opposite direction from most retired champions: he says he is taking lessons from Pereira as he prepares for his own return to combat sports.
Teixeira, 46, will headline Spaten Fight Night 3 on Aug. 29 in Sao Paulo against Mauricio Rua, 44, a fight that reunites two veterans who retired on the same night at UFC 283 in January 2023. The idea for Teixeira’s boxing debut was first mentioned over dinner in Rio de Janeiro in January, and Teixeira says he’s approaching the camp with enthusiasm: “I’m training with joy, I’m really happy, and we’re going after the knockout.”
The weight of Teixeira’s comments is not sentimental. He has a direct, documented role in Pereira’s conversion from kickboxer to mixed martial artist — Teixeira helped Pereira adapt to MMA when Pereira made the jump — and now Pereira will return the favor by helping Teixeira prepare for boxing. Teixeira framed the relationship plainly: “We train very lightly these days,” he said, noting that his role has shifted from training hard alongside Pereira to helping in a coaching capacity while still learning from him.
Teixeira left no doubt about the mutual objective. “That’s the goal. That’s the focus,” he said, pointing to the shared desire for a definitive finish; he added elsewhere that “Poatan’ is extremely well prepared.” Teixeira expects Mauricio Rua to bring everything he’s got too: “I think ‘Shogun’ is going to come in training hard. That’s what I believe.”
The context flips the usual dynamic. A former light heavyweight champion who stayed active as an MMA coach in Danbury after retiring, Teixeira has moved into mentorship. Yet in the run-up to two high-stakes fights, he is the student in some respects: borrowing Pereira’s timing, feints and fight vision for his own ring work while offering Pereira the technical and tactical support that helped him settle into MMA years ago.
That reversal is the story’s tension. Coaches and pupils normally trade places only over long arcs; here the swap is compressed into a few months. Pereira, preparing to test his striking and fight IQ at heavyweight against Gane, is also sharpening the boxing instincts of a veteran who once helped shepherd his MMA career. The outcome of each camp will measure who learned what better: Poatan’s adjustment to heavyweight MMA or Teixeira’s ability to translate those lessons into a boxing knockout.
Both fights carry clear stakes. Pereira’s bout at UFC White House answers whether his unique striking and ring sense can win him the interim heavyweight strap. Teixeira’s Aug. 29 headliner tests whether a coach-turned-student can convert practice-room vision into a paid knockout against a former UFC champion in Rua.
The most consequential unanswered question is straightforward: will Poatan’s fight IQ be enough to carry him to the interim heavyweight title at UFC White House — and will Teixeira’s cross-pollination of skills produce the knockout he is chasing on Aug. 29?
