Jan Błachowicz had to
submit to Glover Teixeira in the second round at UFC 267 on Saturday night.
With this win, the 42-year-old Brazilian veteran claimed Błachowicz’s light
heavyweight belt and become the oldest first-time champion in UFC history.

Teixeira (33-7) finished the fight with the 38-year-old
Błachowicz (28-9) by rear-naked choke in what was an upset victory in the Abu
Dhabi event.

Błachowicz was the clear favourite to retain his title in
the second-oldest combined title fight in UFC history, but Teixeira earned his
sixth consecutive victory in style. The Brazilian was in control from the word
go and made an exceptional takedown in the second round. Teixeira sunk the
winning choke at 3:02.

Teixeira last featured in a UFC title fight in 2014, when
his 20-fight winning streak was snapped in a clear decision loss to Jon Jones.
After struggling through a 5-5 stretch of his career, Teixeira rededicated his
training and reeled off five straight victories since the start of 2019 to earn
this title shot.

Teixeira becomes the second fighter to hold the UFC’s
205-pound belt since Jon Jones left the division he dominated for much of the
past decade in a bid to move up to heavyweight.

Petr Yan also won an interim bantamweight title with a
hard-hitting decision victory over Cory Sandhagen. Earlier, rising stars Islam
Makhachev and Khamzat Chimaev returned to the cage with impressive wins on the
show at the Etihad Arena.

Yan and Sandhagen traded a wide variety of strikes and
ground moves in a high-level technical fight that thrilled Abu Dhabi’s fans.
Yan got the better of more exchanges and won 49-46 on all three cards.

Chimaev (10-0), a popular pick to contend for the
welterweight belt in the near future, dominated Li Jingliang in his first fight
since early last year. Chimaev had been sidelined by COVID-19 and other
difficulties.

(With AP Inputs)