Sexto Round<\/a> that he was confident in a victory if matched up against Pavlovich. A year later, having lost his next fight to Derrick Lewis \u2014 also in 35 seconds \u2014 and beaten Tai Tuivasa next, he has the chance to back that up.<\/p>\n\u201cI see it in a more grounded way now,\u201d Teixeira told MMA Fighting. \u201cI still see him as a really tough guy. Back then I said that \u2018if I\u2019m well prepared [I could beat him]\u2019 because I knew he was a very difficult opponent [laughs]. But not much has changed for me. I still see him as a very dangerous guy, someone I need to be extremely well prepared to fight, but I think he\u2019s lost a bit of that momentum and aggression he used to have, and I think that can work in my favor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pavlovich was coming off a decision win over Jairzinho Rozenstruik at the time, rebounding from back-to-back losses to Tom Aspinall and Alexander Volkov, and went on to win another decision a month later against Waldo Cortes-Acosta. Pavlovich is still dangerous, Teixeira said, but might be a different athlete now that he\u2019s entering the octagon after three straight decisions compared to the man that won six first-round knockouts in a row between 2019 and 2023.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, when it\u2019s time for our fight, he might go crazy like he used to, come forward recklessly and throw everything into that one punch and try to finish the fight right away,\u201d Teixeira said. \u201cIt\u2019s a very unpredictable matchup. I trained for that possibility, but I also trained in case he takes a more measured approach, slows the fight down, and tries to win on points. I truly believe I\u2019m very well prepared.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI see myself getting a finish,\u201d he added. \u201cMaybe not in the first round, but I want to hurt him little by little, touching him up, damaging him, breaking that aura even more. But I do see a finish.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finishing a top-ranked foe in Pavlovich would likely make the Brazilian a top-10 heavyweight.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if I beat him, I don\u2019t think I\u2019d immediately be in the title conversation,\u201d Teixeira said. \u201cHonestly, I don\u2019t even want that yet. I think I still need one or two more fights before getting into that discussion. But it would put me in the top 5, maybe top 3.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the heavyweight title picture confusing at the moment, Alex Pereira battling Ciryl Gane for the interim belt while Aspinall recovers from a serious eye injury, \u201cXicao\u201d names Volkov as the ideal opponent for his next step if victorious against Pavlovich.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe a fight with Volkov next would make sense,\u201d Teixeira said. \u201cTwo Russians in a row? That would be funny.\u201d<\/p>\n
Volkov was victorious in six of his past seven trips to the octagon, the only blemish being a controversial split decision loss to Gane. He\u2019s coming off decisions over Jailton Almeida and Cortes-Acosta, both fights being highly criticized by fans, and Teixeira said he would be far more confident against him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI actually think that fight would be easier than the Sergei fight,\u201d Teixeira said. \u201cI really believe that. Maybe because Volkov is such a big guy, I think I\u2019d have an easier time working against someone like that because it\u2019s more similar to my style. And I\u2019m also very good at closing the distance. I was even training with one of Plinio\u2019s guys who\u2019s bigger than me.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you know how to close the distance and manage it well, even if you\u2019re shorter and have less reach, it can work. So I don\u2019t think fighting Volkov would be much different. Obviously, Volkov is tough and dangerous, but comparatively speaking, I think Sergei brings more risk than Volkov does.\u201d<\/p>\n
Teixeira has trained with \u201cPoatan\u201d Pereira and Glover Teixeira in Danbury for his upcoming fight in China and said it has helped him to not only prepare for Pavlovich, but also evolve as a true martial artist.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most dangerous fight is always the next one and this time is no different,\u201d Teixeira said. \u201cIt was great coming here to train with Alex because he\u2019s such an experienced guy with so many striking fights under his belt. Every day you learn something from him. And Glover gave me a lot of great insight on the grappling side. Also in the striking, movement and everything, especially cage work.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was actually talking to Glover about this. I don\u2019t have the same jiu-jitsu I used to have anymore, but I also don\u2019t yet have that truly effective MMA jiu-jitsu. I\u2019m somewhere in the middle right now. I\u2019m still evolving toward having really effective jiu-jitsu for MMA, but that\u2019s something that takes time to develop. And when Glover trains with us, the pressure he puts on is insane. One thing I really like about him is that he doesn\u2019t want you to copy his style. He looks at what you already do well, what you need to improve, and then adds details to sharpen your own game. I think that\u2019s really interesting. He doesn\u2019t want you to fight exactly the way he fought.\u201d<\/p>\n
Teixeira joked that \u201ca lot of people are going say it\u2019s my cardio\u201d that needs the most improvement after his latest UFC fight, a 15-minute decision against Tuivasa, but explained what caused him to get so tired that night in Sydney.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it was much more about the adrenaline draining me that night,\u201d Teixeira said. \u201cBefore the fight, I even told my coach, \u2018I think I should stop warming up because my heart is racing too much. My gas tank is already going away\u2019 [laughs]. Time zone changes, coming off a loss, fighting in the other guy\u2019s hometown, there\u2019s extra pressure. And Tuivasa is a tough guy. He\u2019s hard to knock out. He\u2019s got an iron chin. Even in the last second of a round he still wants to stand there and trade punches with you. I knew it was going to be a tough fight, and it was, but I saw details I can improve on.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tallison Teixeira is no rush to enter the discussion for a shot at the UFC heavyweight belt but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":703153,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,85,787,1396],"class_list":["post-703152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=703152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/703153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}