Is former UFC lightweight champion Charles Oliveira’s greatest asset also the major hole in his game? Neiman Gracie, teammate to Oliveira’s next opponent, Beneil Dariush, certainly thinks so. Gracie, a member of the family who founded Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu recently appeared on Trocação Franca to discuss Oliveira’s grappling prowess and where it might fall apart opposite Dariush.
“Watching Charles fight is so fun because you’re always wondering what will happen. He gets knocked down, he scores a knockdown. He’s always so fun to watch. This is going to be a great fight, maybe the fight of the year. Their jiu-jitsu are different from one another. Charles’ jiu-jitsu is more of attacks from any position.
Is Charles Oliveira’s Greatest Weapon His Greatest Weakness?
He has many submissions up his sleeve, guillotines, triangles, millions of things. ‘Benny’s’ [jiu-jitsu] is different, he progresses more, wants to pass your guard, mount and try to submit you. Charles tries to submit you from any position, and that ends up putting Charles in a bit of danger sometimes because of how much he exposes himself.
I think that’s one situation ‘Benny’ can take advantage of in the fight, Charles exposing himself, to try to progress and maybe even submit him.”
Gracie went on to declare that this very attribute of Oliveira’s fight game is exactly what a more methodical fighter like Dariush can exploit.
“I would say Charles’ best weapon, his biggest strength, is also his biggest weakness too, that style of going forward and giving his all in the fight.
He goes out there walking forward to see what happens. Like I said, ‘Benny’ has jiu-jitsu and striking, and wrestling to neutralize his attacks. If ‘Benny’ fights smart like he’s been fighting his past [eight] fights with no losses, I believe he wins. But always be careful because Charles is super dangerous and can also submit you or knock you out at any moment.”
Gracie also expects to see Dariush claim victory against Oliveira, and move on to fight for the lightweight title. “Winning this, ‘Benny’ will fight for the title next.
We believe so, but we can’t predict the future, especially when we’re talking about the UFC and Dana White, a man thinks one thing today but changes his mind on the next day. We do believe that [Dariush] will be fighting the winner of Islam Makhachev and [Alexander Volkanovski] at the end of the year.”
Is Neiman Gracie right about Charles Oliveira? Let us know in the comments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drRNlyD-bIE
