UFC president Dana White calls Charles Oliveira one of the top lightweights on the planet.
Charles Oliveira impressed at UFC 256 over the weekend with a dominant decision victory over perennial title contender Tony Ferguson. The win was the eighth in a row for ‘Do Bronx’ and followed a submission win over Kevin Lee in March.
After UFC 256 Dana White spoke with ESPN about Oliveira and his place in the ‘shark tank’ that is the UFC’s lightweight division.
“It’s going to be interesting on Tuesday to see where the media ranks him in that division,” said White. “He’s, without a doubt, one of the top three guys in the world right now. We’ve got some fights coming up in that division, and I have a meeting with Khabib, so we’ll see how this thing plays out.”
At this time of writing, Khabib Nurmagomedov continues to be listed as the 155 lbs champion (despite Nurmagomedov’s insistence that he is retired). The rankings then list Justin Gaethje, Dustin Poirier, Tony Ferguson and Conor McGregor in that order.
Oliveira is ranked 7th, behind former champion Rafael dos Anjos and Dan Hooker.
The last time Oliveira lost was back in 2017, when he was TKO’d by Paul Felder. Before that, also in 2017, he beat Will Brooks by rear naked choke. The fight with Brooks signalled Oliveira’s first lightweight fight since 2011.
Prior to moving up to 155 lbs Oliveira fought at featherweight, were he struggled to make weight. As an attempted featherweight he missed weight on four occasions. In that division Oliveira went 7-5 with wins over Jeremy Stephens, Nik Lentz and Myles Jury and losses to Anthony Pettis, Max Holloway, Frankie Edgar, Ricardo Lamas and Cub Swanson.
Next up Oliveira is hoping to take on the winner of Conor McGregor vs. Dustin Poirier 2.