Former lightweight champion Charles Oliveira holds the record for most submissions in UFC at 16, as well as the record for most finishes at 19. The Brazilian is also second all time behind Jim Miller (46) for most submission attempts at 40.
Too bad “Do Bronx” has no ground game.
That’s according to former lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, who will corner Islam Makhachev in the UFC 280 pay-per-view (PPV) main event this Sat. night (Oct. 2022) at Etihad Arena on “Fight Island” in Abu Dhabi.
“This is what Islam gonna do with Charles Olivera: he gonna ride him like you ride your horse,” Nurmagomedov told Henry Cejudo in a recent video. “A lot of people underestimate Islam. They think Charles Oliveira have ground game. He don’t have ground game. If you tap eight times in UFC, how can you say you have ground game? You tap eight times!”
I guess “The Eagle” is better at trash talk than he is at math.
Oliveira (33-8, 1 NC) has eight losses but only three of them were by submission: a kneebar to the aforementioned Miller at UFC 124 followed by consecutive guillotine chokes to Ricardo Lamas and Anthony Pettis at UFC on FOX 21 and UFC Fight Night 98, respectively.
These things happen in competition.
To wit, Aaron Judge hit 62 home runs this year setting an American League record but also landed at No. 7 on the list of most strikeouts at 175. Cage fighting is one of those “live by the sword” scenarios where you can’t always go for broke without putting yourself at equal risk.
Unless you bang out three title defenses and retire at 32.