Former UFC lightweight champion Charles Oliveira has been laying low after it was announced that “Do Bronx” was injured and no longer competing against top contender Beneil Dariush in the UFC 288 pay-per-view (PPV) co-main event on May 6 at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
So what happened?
“I wasn’t able to train, I got injured during wrestling practice,” Oliveira told his Instagram followers (transcribed by MMA Fighting). “I tried to train, I tried to do everything I could but we couldn’t, so we pulled out of the fight. [Fighting at UFC 288] would be great because I would be fighting on the same night of two teammates, ‘Willycat’ [Daniel Santos] and Rolando [Bedoya], but God knows all things. We’ll continue working and stay focused.”
Matchmakers are hoping to rebook their 155-pound contest for the UFC 289: “Nunes vs. Pena 3” fight card the following month. The winner of Oliveira vs. Dariush is expected to challenge reigning lightweight champion Islam Makhachev when the promotion returns to Abu Dhabi for UFC 294 in October.
“I have to stay [away from training] for a few days so I can go back to training soon, and then we’ll reschedule the fight,” Oliveira continued. “I’ll be back to training pretty soon. That’s it, I had a small injury and decided to pull out so I wouldn’t fight injured. We’ve made that mistake once and I didn’t want to do it again. … We’re taking one step back so we can take one, two, three steps forward soon.”
Oliveira (33-9) has not competed since losing the title to Makhachev at UFC 280 last fall. As for Dariush (22-4-1), he’s coming off a unanimous decision victory over Mateusz Gamrot, also at UFC 280, to secure his eighth straight win.