More than seven years removed from his first title opportunity, the Brazilian veteran had a breakthrough in the UFC 267 headliner, as he claimed light heavyweight gold with a second-round submission of Jan Blachowicz on Saturday at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. Now with six straight wins under his belt, Teixeira is authoring a late-career resurgence that would make even the most hard-boiled cynic crack a smile.
Here is a by-the-numbers look at UFC 267, with statistics courtesy of UFCStats.com.
14: Undisputed UFC light heavyweight champions. Teixeira became the 14th light heavyweight title holder thanks to his second-round submission of Blachowicz. The others: Blachowicz, Jon Jones, Daniel Cormier, Mauricio Rua, Lyoto Machida, Rashad Evans, Forrest Griffin, Quinton Jackson, Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture, Vitor Belfort, Tito Ortiz and Frank Shamrock.
42 years, 2 days: Age of Teixeira, making him the oldest first-time champion in UFC history. He is also the second-oldest UFC champion ever behind only Randy Couture, who held the heavyweight belt at age 45.
2,744: Days since Teixeira’s last title shot, a decision loss to Jon Jones at UFC 172 on April 26, 2014.
5:17: Total control time for Teixeira in 8:02 of Octagon time against Blachowicz. The Brazilian veteran landed two of six takedown attempts and attempted two submissions as Blachowicz looked largely helpless on the canvas.
318: Combined significant strikes landed by Petr Yan (149) and Cory Sandhagen (169) in their interim title bout in the co-main event. Yan scored the bout’s only knockdown in Round 3 and cpatured interim gold with a unanimous decision triumph.
445: Significant strikes attempted by Sandhagen. Yan, meanwhile, attempted just 270. While Sandhagen’s output was superior, “No Mercy” was more accurate, landing at a 55% clip to his opponent’s 37%.
18: Signifcant strikes by which Sandhagen outlanded Yan in Round 1. Yan, meanwhile, held a 36-to-25 advantage in that category in Round 4. The other three rounds were closely contested, with Sandhagen outlanding his Russian foe 45 to 38 in Round 2, 37 to 36 in Round 3 and 25 to 20 in Round 5.
1: Takedown landed in six attempts for Sandhagen.
38: Combined significant strike advantage for Sandhagen in his last two bouts, five-round defeats at the hands of Yan (169-149) and T.J. Dillashaw (128-110).
21: Fighters in UFC history with submission victories using four or more different techniques. Islam Makhachev joined this group by submitting Dan Hooker with a kimura 2:25 into the opening round of their lightweight scrap. Makhachev has also won UFC bouts via rear-naked choke, arm-triangle choke and armbar.
9: Consecutive victories for Makhachev, tying him with lightweight champion Charles Oliveira for the third-longest winning streak at 155 pounds in UFC history. Only Khabib Nurmagomedov (12) and Tony Ferguson (12) have longer winning streaks in the history of the division.
100: Percent takedown defense for Alexander Volkov in a unaninimous decision triumph over Marcin Tybura at heavyweight. Volkov stuffed all 16 takedown tries from his Polish opponent while holding a 75-to-58 advantage in signifcant strikes landed.
4: Consecutive finishes in UFC competition for Khamzat Chimaev, tying him with Tom Aspinall, Chris Daukaus and Vicente Luque for the second-longest active finishing streak in the promotion behind only heavyweight champ Francis Ngannou (five). Chimaev rendered Jingliang Li unconscious with a rear-naked choke 3:16 into the opening round of their welterweight clash on Saturday.
1: Significant strike absorbed by Chimaev in his first four UFC appearances. Chimaev outlanded Li by a 25-to-0 count before securing the submission. Thus far, John Phillips is the only opponent to land a significant strike against the Allstars Training Center standout.
254: Total strikes landed by Chimaev in his four-bout UFC tenure. His opponents have landed 2. Chimaev has also outlanded opponents 112 to 1 in significant strikes over that period.
7: Consecutive victories for Magomed Ankalaev, who garnered a unanimous decision triumph against former title challenger Volkan Oezdemir in a featured light heavyweight bout. That ties the Dagestani with Chuck Liddell for the third longest winning streak at 205 pounds in modern UFC history. Only Jon Jones (13) and Lyoto Machida (eight) have longer winning streaks at light heavyweight.
88: Significant strikes landed by Amanda Ribas in a three-round verdict against Virna Jandiroba at strawweight. The Brazilian got stronger as the bout progressed, going from eight to 26 to 54 significant strikes landed per round. The final significant strike total is also a UFC career best for Ribas in six promotional appearances. Jandiroba landed 50 significant strikes in defeat.
95: Total strikes by which Albert Duraev outlanded Roman Kopylov in the second round of their middleweight encounter. Coincidentally, that was also the round in which Kopylov floored the former Dana White’s Contender Series competitor. Duraev defeated Kopylov via unanimous decision.
94: Significant strikes landed by Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos during a lopsided second round against Benoit St. Denis. By comparison, the Frenchman landed just 28, as many observers called for referee Vyacheslav Kiselev to halt the contest during the beatdown. Ultimately, St. Denis made it to the bout’s final horn but lost a clear-cut unanimous decision. All told, dos Santos outlanded St. Denis by a 149-to-67 count in significant strikes.
12: Takedowns successfully defended in 14 attempts for dos Santos — an 86% success rate.
4: Significant strikes landed by Lerone Murphy in the second round, when he knocked out Makwan Amirkhani with a knee 14 seconds into the period. That emphatic finish came after an opening stanza in which he was taken down five times and controlled for 4:05 of the five-minute round.
4:46: Time of Andre Petroski’s arm-triangle submission victory against Yaozong Hu, tying him for the third-latest finish in UFC middleweight history. Antonio Carlos Jr. tapped out Leonardo Guimaraes at the 4:46 mark of Round 3 in a 185-pound bout at UFC Fight Night 94 on Sept. 17, 2016. The latest finish occurred UFC Fight Night 76 in October 2015, when Garreth McLellan scored a knockout of Bubba Bush 4:58 into the third stanza.
6: Submissions attempted by Petroski before the last of those efforts elicited a tapout from his opponent. Petroski attempted two submissions in Round 1, three in Round 2 and one in Round 3.
12:04: Total control time for Tagir Ulanbekov in a split-decision triumph against Allan Nascimento at flyweight. Ulanbekov landed four of five takedown tries en route to his fifth consecutive professional triumph.