Abner Teixeira

Abner Teixeira da Silva Júnior (born 10 September 1996) is a Brazilian boxer. He competed in the men's heavyweight event at the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Career
Born in Osasco, Abner soon moved to Sorocaba, in the interior of São Paulo. At the age of 14, Teixeira visited a social boxing project in Sorocaba, and became involved in the sport. Shortly afterwards, the teenager began training. Dedicated, he walked 6km every day to get to the gym. The boy who dreamed of being a football player, doctor or firefighter soon began to stand out and won his first Brazilian youth title in 2013. The good results led Teixeira to the Brazilian Team. At the 2019 Pan American Games held in Lima, Peru, the heavyweight won the bronze medal.

He participated in the 2019 AIBA World Boxing Championships held in Yekaterinburg, Russia, where he won the first fight but was eliminated in the 2nd round.

At the 2020 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo, he became the first Brazilian boxer to stand on the podium in a historic campaign for Brazil (one gold, one silver and one bronze). The athlete won the fifth Brazilian boxing bronze medal in the history of the Olympic Games: besides him, Servílio de Oliveira (Mexico City 1968) and Adriana Araújo, Yamaguchi Falcão and Esquiva Falcão (London 2012) won the medal.

Participated in the 2021 AIBA World Boxing Championships held in Belgrade, Serbia, in the heavyweight category.

At the 2022 South American Games, he won gold in the super heavyweight category.

At the 2023 IBA World Boxing Championships, now participating in the Super heavyweight category, lost in the round of 16 to Georgian Nikoloz Begadze.

At the 2023 Pan American Games, Teixeira reached the super heavyweight final, but had to abandon the final due to physical injury, obtaining the silver medal and, therefore, qualifying for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. Teixera had a total anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury in his right knee two months ago. At the moment, he was undergoing conservative treatment, as surgery could take him out of the Olympics, as it was estimated that recovery would take around seven months.