Glover Teixeira's long and winding 19-year career finally culminated in gold Saturday in the United Arab Emirates as he captured the UFC's light heavyweight championship via 2nd round submission over Jan Blachowicz. The Brazilian challenger wasn't about to waste time in what was likely to be his last shot at a title immediately seeking a takedown in the opening moments and dropping Blachowicz to the mat.

---

Blachowicz was content to keep a tight guard as Teixeira roughed him up for the whole round but did no major damage. When round two started Blachowicz seemed to adjust easily defending Teixeira's repeated takedown attempts and opening up with sharp punching combinations. But Teixeira managed to land a big left hook in the middle of one of Blachowicz's combos which momentarily wobbled the champion. Though Blachowicz appeared to recover landing another combination, Teixeira pushed in again for the takedown. This time he nailed it and instantly moved to full mount. When Blachowicz tried to turn out, Teixeira got a rear mount and seized a jaw crushing rear choke hold that had the Polish fighter quickly tapping. At 42, Teixeira becomes the second oldest fighter, after Randy Couture, to win a UFC title.