Turning in another stoppage win inside the Octagon, former undisputed lightweight champion, Charles Oliveira managed to halt the surge of the streaking, Beneil Dariush at UFC 289 last night – leading to a slew of heralding comments from his peers.
Oliveira, who retained his status as number one lightweight contender last night in Vancouver, Canada, managed to return to the winner’s enclosure at the first time of asking in the co-headlining slot against Dariush.
Returning to the Octagon for the first time since October of last year, Oliveira had dropped a second round arm-triangle submission loss to Islam Makhachev in the pair’s vacant championship clash at UFC 280.
And returning in triumphant fashion last night in the Rogers Arena, Charles Oliveira managed to land an opening round ground strikes TKO win over the aforenoted, Dariush – laying waste to the Iranian-born grappler following a back-and-forth exchange and scramble-heavy showdown on the ground.
In the wake of his victory, Oliveira, who was described as a top-3 lightweight fighter of all time – and heralded by the likes of surging bantamweight contender, Sean O’Malley and welterweight challenger, Belal Muhammad, however, former-foe, Islam Makhachev issued a reminder to him of their past battle.
Charles Oliveira sets sights on title rematch with Islam Makhachev
Calling for a championship rematch with the Russian contender following his successful return to the winner’s enclosure last night, Charles Oliveira was immediately knocked back by the former, who claimed “there’s levels to this game” – having previously submitting the Sao Paulo finisher just last year.
Congrats Charles.
But still there’s levels in this game— Makhachev Islam (@MAKHACHEVMMA) June 11, 2023
With last night’s win, Oliveira also scooped a record-setting nineteenth post-fight bonus – scoring a Performance of the Night check for his efforts against Dariush.
Adding the Kings MMA staple to his winning résumé, Oliveira has now defeated the likes of Clay Guida, Jim Miller, Kevin Lee, Tony Ferguson, Michael Chandler, Dustin Poirier, and Justin Gaethje to name a few.