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The top ranked UFC lightweight is struggling to find willing opponents among the division’s elite, and wondering why ‘some guy from Bellator’ is cutting him in line.
Charles Oliveira’s journey to becoming one of the UFC lightweight elite has been a long, slow process. The owner of the UFC’s record for most submission finishes in the Octagon started his career with the promotion back in 2010. The intervening decade has come with numerous ups and downs, but now on a seven fight win streak, Oliveira has finally worked his way into contender status. Along with that success, however, has come a narrowing field of potential opponents—especially if Oliveira only wants to fight other fighters ranked ahead of him.
“If Charles could choose it would be someone from the top-5, any of them,” Oliveira told MMA Fighting in a recent interview, “but since things have been rough and I don’t know what’s going on and what I’m supposed to do, if I have to go there and talk trash, throw chairs through a bus, attack someone… I don’t know.
“That’s the point, I don’t know what I have to do. I go there and put on a show, I don’t turn anyone down, and I don’t have an opportunity. I think I’ll have to be the Charles that everybody knows I’m not, I’ll have to shove my opponent and curse their families, throw chairs and break things to be noted. I guess that’s what’s missing.”
Especially grating, it seems, has been the recent signing of former Bellator champion Michael Chandler. Chandler is entering the UFC fold off two straight KO wins, including his most recent over former champ Benson Henderson. However, he’s also just a little over a year removed from a KO loss to current Bellator title holder Patricio ‘Pitbull’ Freire. That hasn’t stopped the UFC from granting Chandler instant contender status, though, with the opportunity to serve as backup for the upcoming Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Justin Gaethje lightweight title fight on October 25th—should either man fail to make it to fight night.
It’s a position that appears to have left Oliveira somewhat vexed.
“I’m in the best moment of my life, seven wins, man, and I don’t have an opportunity to fight someone in the top-5,” Oliveira said. “And now some guy from Bellator, who got knocked out in the first round [by Patricio Freire], he gets signed and is the next challenger for the belt. How come? I don’t get it. I don’t understand it.
“It’s seven wins in a row and I don’t leave it in the judges’ hands, I go there and get the knockout or the submission. Go watch all of my fights, the first one all the way until my last one against Kevin Lee, which one wasn’t a show? When did I get booed? Never. Regardless if I won or lost, I’m always moving forward, always putting on a show.”
Oliveira added that he’d be happy to welcome Chandler to the UFC if he can’t get a top-5 opponent in the near future. And he also called out Tony Ferguson, whose recent planned bout against Dustin Poirier appears to have fallen apart at the negotiation table.
With Dustin Poirier, Conor McGregor, and Dan Hooker all un-booked as well, it seems as though there should be someone in the top 5 willing to take on ‘Do Bronx.’ But until the UFC figures out just who that might be, it appears the Brazilian is going to be stuck waiting—or left to take his own chances on someone ranked below him.