Glover Teixeira

Glover Lucas Teixeira (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈɡloveʁ tejˈʃejɾɐ]; born October 28, 1979) is a Brazilian mixed martial artist and former member of the Brazilian National Wrestling Team, who currently competes in the Light Heavyweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He has also competed in the WEC, Impact FC, PFC, and Shooto. As of January 10, 2015, he is #5 in official UFC Light Heavyweight rankings and ranked the #7 Light Heavyweight in the world by Sherdog.

Background

Teixeira is originally from the rural community of Sobrália, Minas Gerais, Brazil. His neighborhood had no traffic signals, there was no electricity in many of the homes, and there was a single gas station. He moved to Danbury, Connecticut in 1999 to help support his family and quickly found a job in landscaping. It was there that he met his wife, Ingrid. After watching boxers such as Mike Tyson and the early mixed martial arts fighters such as Royce Gracie and Chuck Liddell compete, Teixeira decided that he wanted to follow the same path. He had never heard of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, but was able to find and watch videos of UFC 1 and UFC 2 which featured the legendary UFC Hall of Famer Royce Gracie. After working 10–12 hour days landscaping, Teixeira would then go train Brazilian jiu-jitsu at American Top Team Connecticut. John Hackleman had trained a fighter who fought Teixeira and was impressed by the young Brazilian. Hackleman invited Teixeira to his gym in California, The Pit, where Teixeira began training with UFC Hall of Famer Chuck Liddell.

Ultimate Fighting Championship

The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is a mixed martial arts promotion company. It is the largest in the world and features most of the top-ranked fighters in the sport. Based in the United States, the UFC produces events worldwide that showcase ten weight divisions and abide by the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts. The UFC has held over 300 events to date. Dana White serves as the president of the UFC while brothers Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta control the UFC's parent company, Zuffa, LLC.

The first Ultimate Fighting Championship event was held on November 12, 1993 at the McNichols Sports Arena in Denver, Colorado. The purpose of the early Ultimate Fighting Championship competitions were to identify the most effective martial art in a fight, with minimal rules, between competitors of different fighting disciplines, including boxing, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Sambo, wrestling, Muay Thai, karate, judo, and other styles. In subsequent competitions, fighters began adopting effective techniques from more than one discipline, which indirectly helped create an entirely separate style of fighting known as present-day mixed martial arts.

Misha Cirkunov

Misha Cirkunov (born February 27, 1987) is a Latvian mixed martial artist currently fighting in the light heavyweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). He lives in and fights from Toronto, Canada. Before taking up MMA, he was a highly accomplished judoka.

Mixed martial arts career

Cirkunov made his professional debut in April of 2013 and amassed a record of 9-2 before signing with the Ultimate Fighting Championship in during the summer of 2015.

Ultimate Fighting Championship

Cirkunov was expected to make his promotional debut against Sean O'Connell on August 23, 2015 at UFC Fight Night 74. O'Connell withdrew from the bout due to injury and was replaced by Daniel Jolly. Cirkunov defeated Jolly via first round KO after achieving full mount and battering him when he turned his back.

Cirkunov faced promotional newcomer Alex Nicholson on February 6, 2016, at UFC Fight Night 82. Cirkunov submitted Alex Nicholson via a second-round neck crank, breaking both sides of his jaw in the process, after earlier breaking his nose. At the post-fight press conference, he told reporters, "I’m just really happy with the performance and especially – not just the submission – but I was able to break his jaw. I’m impressed.”

Glover

Glover can have several meanings:

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Alexander Gustafsson

Alexander L. Gustafsson (born 15 January 1987) is a Swedish mixed martial artist. He is currently signed with the UFC, fighting in their light heavyweight division. As of December 13, 2015, he is the #3 ranked light heavyweight contender in official UFC rankings and the #3 ranked light heavyweight in the world by Sherdog and ESPN.

Mixed martial arts career

Early career

Gustafsson started training MMA in 2006, and before that he trained in boxing which he started when he was around 10 years old. He won the national championship (youth-junior level) in 2003, at the age of 16. In 2008-2009 he made a quick return to boxing, winning some amateur tournaments in Sweden and defeating the Swedish heavyweight boxing champion in an amateur fight. He was set to compete in the national championship even the following year, 2010, for which he was a big favorite to win. His new awaken boxing career was however ended when he signed with the UFC in September, 2009.

He also competed in the martial arts form of shootfighting, before starting his professional MMA career, with a Shoot record of 5-1, with 4 wins by KO/TKO and 1 by decision, his only loss came by split decision against Mats Nilsson in the Kaisho Battle 2007 event. He also competed in a smaller amount of submission wrestling and submission grappling matches, in which he was also undefeated. Before signing with the UFC, Gustafsson fought mostly in smaller promotions in Sweden and other parts of Europe. By 2009, he had racked up a perfect pro-record of 8–0, with 6 wins coming by the way of KO/TKO.