Former UFC light heavyweight champions Glover Teixeira and Mauricio Rua are putting retirement on hold for a Spaten Fight Night 3 boxing match on Sat., Aug. 29, 2026 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The bout will be contested under professional boxing rules with 10-ounce gloves featuring eight, two-minute rounds.
And Teixeira is not treating this as a friendly exhibition.
“I fought everybody, he fought everybody, we didn’t fight each other and that’s great,” Teixeira told MMA Junkie. “We retired the same day,
here we are. We’re gonna go in there and do some boxing and let it out, man. It’s a fight. We’re training hard, no exhibition. We do 10-ounce gloves, and we’re going to take his head off. I’m going to take his head off. I’m going for that. I don’t know what he wants to do.”
Retired UFC fighters seem obsessed with boxing for some reason.
Teixeira, 46, retired from MMA after losing his 205-pound title to Jamahal Hill atop the UFC 283 fight card back in early 2023. Similarly, the 44-year-old Rua called it quits after the same pay-per-view (PPV) event in the wake of his technical knockout loss to Ukrainian “Duelist” Ihor Potieria.
Winner gets Wandy?
Spaten Fight Night 3, airing live on TV Globo and streaming on Globoplay, will also feature Olympic gold medalists Rafaela Silva and Beatriz Souza in judo action. Silva collides with 2024 Olympic silver medalist Prisca Awiti not long after Souza runs it back with fellow Olympian Raz Hershko.
