Charles Oliveira is currently gearing up for his highly anticipated return to the Octagon on October 21 for UFC 294 in Abu Dhabi.
‘Do Bronx’ will attempt to reclaim the lightweight world title as he runs it back with reigning champion Islam Makhachev in the evening’s massive main event. However, the announcement came as quite a surprise considering just weeks prior, Charles Oliveira revealed that he would not be adequately prepared to return in October for their title tilt. As it turns out, that was nothing more than a ploy by the former champ.
During an appearance on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, Charles Oliveira revealed that his ruling out an October return was merely an attempt to get the fight moved to November when the promotion is expected to return to Brazil.
“What changed is that I just learned how to play,” Oliveira revealed through a translator. “What I knew is that the UFC was planning to maybe have a fight in Brazil in November. So I was trying to push it to November. I was playing with them. Obviously, it didn’t work so now I’m fighting in October, but that’s what I was doing.”
Charles Oliveira says he tried to fight in Brazil in November before ultimately agreeing to fight Islam Makhachev in October
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"I was just playing with them. Obviously it didn't work."
— MMAFighting.com (@MMAFighting) August 7, 2023
Charles Oliveira Seeks Redemption in Long-Awaited Rematch
Unfortunately for Charles Oliveira, his game plan didn’t work, but ‘Do Bronx’ did reveal that he was able to bank a little extra cash for his October clash with the Dagestani destroyer.
The bout will come almost exactly one year removed from their first meeting at UFC 280. On that night, Islam Makhachev made relatively easy work of Oliveira, scoring a second-round submission to capture the vacant lightweight title. Since then, Makhachev has defended the belt once in a Fight of the Year contender with Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 284.
In June, Charles Oliveira returned to action and earned an impressive first-round TKO against Beneil Dariush to re-establish himself as the division’s top contender, setting the stage for a rematch with Khabib Nurmagomedov’s successor.