UFC light heavyweight Glover Teixeira had a lot on the line entering UFC Fight Night 77 on Saturday. Booked against the unheralded but dangerous Patrick "Durkin" Cummins, he was in a do-or-die spot.
A loss would have put him into the mid-tier of the division, potentially dooming him to pay-per-view preliminary cards and B-show Fight Nights for the duration of his career. An unremarkable win would have left him in a holding pattern at a time where the rest of the division is booked up, courtesy of the logjam in the title picture.
Teixeira needed to beat Cummins and beat him badly. And boy, did he ever do that.
Cummins had just one avenue to victory: He needed to take Teixeira down and hold him there for prolonged periods of time. While that sounds damning, Cummins is a two-time NCAA Division I All-American out of Penn State. He is, in fact, quite good at taking people down and holding them there for prolonged periods of time.
That said, Cummins is not an especially well-known fighter. He has been largely forgotten since his wacky UFC 170 debut and has been mostly relegated to preliminary cards since.
That put Teixeira in an awkward spot. While Cummins was seriously overmatched on paper, Teixeira was largely dominated by another former Penn State wrestler, Phil Davis, just 12 months ago. Cummins blanketing the Brazilian en route to an ugly unanimous-decision win was a legitimate possibility.
Teixeira, however, did everything he needed to. Every single striking exchange ended with Cummins taking hard shots, largely neutralizing Durkin's clinch work. While the wrestler managed to get the fight to the ground, Teixeira was able to safely work himself back to his feet each time.
Glover Teixeira lands a barrage of punches that puts an end to Pat Cummins' night in Brazil #UFCSP https://t.co/RfR9OHnmJB
— FOX Sports: UFC (@UFCONFOX) November 8, 2015
Rinse and repeat for six-plus minutes and you have a Durkin who just couldn't take any more. Teixeira would get the TKO via punches at 1:12 of Round 2.
Here are some notes and thoughts on the bout:
While it's sad to say, Cummins' window to be a player at 205 pounds has closed. He is 0-3 against current Top 10 fighters and has been finished in each of those bouts. At age 34, he's unlikely to be retooled in a way that turns him into an elite-level fighter.
That said, Cummins perfectly fits into the "grinding gatekeeper" role for the division. Is that a glamorous job? No, but somebody has to do it!
Teixeira actually showed flashes of improved boxing here. While his power has never been in doubt, he has always relied on a right hand cross-counter, sometimes followed by a left hook. He hasn't revolutionized his striking, but that extra bit of variety could work wonders alongside his established power.
Teixeira finds himself in an awkward spot from a matchmaking perspective. There aren't too many fighters who he could reasonably fight right now. The only interesting option for him would be Alexander Gustafsson, and he is likely to meet Rashad Evans next. We might just see Teixeira in another dangerous fight.
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