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Diego Lima, Charles Oliveira’s manager, would like ‘Do Bronx’ to headlined UFC Brasilia in March.
If Charles Oliveira’s manager gets it his way, great things might be coming for the UFC lightweight contender pretty soon. In an interview with Ag Fight, Diego Lima, the Brazilian’s agent, shared his feelings about who and where ‘Do Bronx’ should fight next. And he feels like his fighter ought to be getting better treatment from the UFC.
During the interview, Lima explained he wants Oliveira to headline the upcoming UFC Brasilia card, which — reportedly — only has a co-main event so far. Lima stated that he wished that Oliveira could take on ranked competition in that headline spot; namely Justin Gaethje and Kevin Lee, who are not booked at the moment.
“I really want to put Charles on that Brasilia card. But I’d like to put him on the main event, against a ranked guy. There’s no logic in me putting him to fight Justin Gaethje, Kevin Lee or another ranked guy if it’s not the main event, if that fight brings no career opportunities afterwards.”
“When it comes to Gaethje, there has been no negotiations. We really would like to just fight a ranked man. Very little of them don’t have booked fights, like Justin and Kevin Lee. I think they are the three top 10 lightweights who don’t have a fight scheduled.”
Lima does have a strong case for his fighter. In Oliveira’s last fight he knocked out Jared Gordon with relative ease, taking his record to 28-8-1 NC. The win put Do Bronx on a six-fight winning streak, all finishes, with victories over Clay Guida, Christos Giagos, Jim Miller, David Teymur and Nik Lentz. The 30-year-old’s last loss happened in December 2017, when he was knocked out by Paul Felder.
UFC Fight Night 170 will take place in Brazil’s capital of Brasilia, on March 14. Even though a main event has yet to be determined, a co-main event between welterweights Demian Maia and Gilbert Burns was reported to be in the works.