The champion has a name and it’s Charles Oliveira – a statement that MMA fans have been using for months and has become one of the most memorable statements of this calendar year, at least when it comes to MMA.
Oliveira said this in the fifth month after he was stripped of his belt due to falling on the scale. A day later he went through Justin Gaethje and is truly proof that he deserves to be champion. However, after last night’s UFC 280 event, the UFC lightweight champion has a new name, and that is Islam Makhachev.
The Dagestani imposed his style on the great Brazilian fighter and forced him to surrender with a “submission” in the second round. It wasn’t Oliveira’s day, and right after the loss, Oliveira described how he felt to Cormier.
“You are a fighter and you know exactly how it feels. Sometimes we show up here, but it’s just not our day. I’ll be back.”, and he sent a similar message to his fans via Instagram.
“Today was not my day, but thank you all for your support. I’m so sorry, but I’ll come back stronger. Today my opponent was better than me. I apologize to everyone.”
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After the loss to Makhachev, one of the first to approach Oliveira was Khabib Nurmagomedov. For months, Khabib also made various comments about Charles Oliveira, and the Brazilian did not like some of them. Khabib still had to side with his childhood friend, Islam Makhachev, and of course, he promoted the match with his statements.
Although sometimes it seemed that there was some animosity between Oliveira and Khabib, last night we could see that there is only mutual respect between them, and Oliveira confirmed this at the press conference after the UFC 280 event.
“This is a sport where we know what it’s all about and we have to promote the fights. That’s exactly what we did. He came to me and literally told me that he said everything he said just to promote the fight and to respect me. He is a great champion, he wrote a great story in this sport and now he has a great champion by his side. All he said was that he respects me and that everything was part of this game before,” he told ”Do Bronx”.
There is no doubt that Oliveira will return to the cage even hungrier and we can’t wait to see him in his next bout. Unfortunately for him, the UFC plans to give Alexander Volkanovski a chance to attack the belt, and Oliveira made a request to Dana White and Hunter Campbell (Operations Manager of the UFC) while still in the cage.
”Hey Dana and hey Hunter. I never ran away from a fight. I was always there for you, no matter what. Give me another fight, I have to be next in line. Give me a chance to be next.”
Maybe the UFC will fulfill his desire for a rematch, but in that case Oliveira would have to wait until Volkanovski and Makhachev face off. There is a much higher chance that Charles will still play one match in the meantime, and perhaps Beneil Dariush is the ideal opponent in a kind of “title eliminator”.
Anyway. Oliveira is still here, he will not give up on his new campaign to the top. He celebrated his 33rd birthday six days ago and has a few very good years ahead of him.
