Athletes
Charles Oliveira Open To Rematches Against Makhachev Or Holloway
Former UFC Lightweight Champion Eyes His Road Back To Gold
Former UFC lightweight champion Charles Oliveira flew all the way from Sao Paulo to Inglewood to watch closely what he expected to be a matchup between the two last fighters to beat him in the Octagon - Islam Makhachev and Arman Tsarukyan - with the 155-pound title on the line.
After a dramatic turn of events on UFC 311's eve, Tsarukyan was ruled out of the contest due to back issues and replaced by Renato Moicano - who was scheduled to fight Beneil Dariush on the card, and ended up being submitted by Makhachev in the first round for the Russian's fourth title defense, a divisional record.
Charles Oliveira | Best Finishes
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Charles Oliveira | Best Finishes
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“Of course, we were rooting for Moicano, being a Brazilian, but he made his whole camp around fighting (Beneil) Dariush and it's a whole new game, a whole new matchup, aside from the weight of fighting for the championship," analyzed Oliveira after the event. “Islam did what Islam does best: took him down and waited for the opportunity to finish him. I came here to see who would be my next opponent, and now we'll get the rematch."
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Oliveira and Makhachev first met at UFC 280, in October 2022, when they fought for the vacant UFC lightweight title, with Islam leaving with the gold after a second-round submission win. The Brazilian then rebounded by knocking out Dariush before finding himself on the wrong side of a close split decision to Tsarukyan at UFC 300, last April.
He then proceeded to beat Michael Chandler for the second time in UFC 309's Fight of the Night, securing the second spot in the 155-pound rankings. After that fight, Oliveira claims he asked the UFC to be the backup fighter for the Makhachev-Tsarukyan matchup.
“They denied me and told me to get some rest," said the Brazilian. “When Arman was out, a lot of people asked me if I would take it since I was here (in Inglewood), but there wasn't a chance. It's not only about money, I have a dream of becoming the champion once again and taking this belt back to Brazil, so I'll only get in there when I'm 100% ready.”
UFC 311: The Bigger Picture | Prelim Results | Main Card Results | Official Scorecards
Although his Plan A remains to be waiting for the rematch against Islam, Charles realizes champions usually fight twice a year and there is a chance the Russian won't step in the Octagon again for a while - in which case, the UFC's most prolific submission artist of all time has a Plan B in mind.
“I prefer to leave it to my managers and focus only on training and being with my family, but we'll have to see when he (Makhachev) will want to come back now," said Oliveira. “If he only wants to fight in October, I definitely want to fight before that, so why not challenge Max Holloway for the BMF belt?"
That would be another matchup with a history behind it, as Charles and Max met in the Octagon in August 2015 while still climbing the featherweight rankings. With less than two minutes into the first round, “do Bronxs” suffered an esophagus injury, which paralyzed the left side of his body, leading to a TKO loss.
Holloway, who just suffered a knockout for the first time in his 14-year career last October while challenging Ilia Topuria in an attempt to reclaim 145-pound gold, is the current holder of the BMF title, which he took from Justin Gaethje at UFC 300 with one of the most memorable knockouts of all-time.
“I think Max himself talked about it (a possible rematch). We met before, but I suffered an injury right in the beginning, so there wasn't an actual fight," said Charles. “I think we deserve to make this fight happen. He's moved up, he's the BMF, the toughest one. I'm very tough myself, I hold a lot of UFC records, so that would be huge.”