Former UFC lightweight champion Charles Oliveira suffered one of the biggest defeats of his career in losing to Islam Makhachev last October. Now, with Oliveira firmly back to winning ways after demolishing Beneil Dariush at UFC 289, his coach, Diego Lima, expects “Do Bronx” to see Makhachev in a rematch.
Not only doe Lima expect a rematch, but he believes Charles Oliveira will use his striking to get the better of the Dagestani champion.
Is A Knockout Charles Oliveira’s BEST Path To UFC Victory Against Islam Makhachev?
“Charles is the No. 1 in the ranking. If you look at the top 5, Charles is No. 1 and he’s beaten the other four in absurd fashion. There’s no other fight to make, there’s no logic. Charles has beate Makhachev is the fight.n those four overwhelmingly. It’s not about wanting [the rematch], it’s logic.
Now, would we do another fight before? I don’t know. Poirier gave up a shot at the belt, fought [Conor] McGregor and then came back for the belt. Why am I saying that?
It looks like McGregor isn’t excited about fighting Chandler. And why did he say that? Maybe he liked Charles’ fight and is excited about that? Who knows.
Maybe we do a fight at 170 with the [lightweight] title shot guaranteed for next year in Brazil? We know it’s a Fight Night this year [Nov. 4 in Sao Paulo], but it might be a numbered card early next year in Brazil. Charles deserves a belt in Brazil. It’s Charles’ dream to fight in Brazil And I think he deserves that.”
Lima continued, explaining how, in his opinion, Oliveira lost the fight. “I know it’s hard to hear that, but it wasn’t Charles there.
He wasn’t alright. I don’t think it’s cool when someone loses and starts giving excuses. It wasn’t Charles’ day, it was Makhachev’s day. Congratulations to him. Nothing we had planned for him was done and it wasn’t because Makhachev was one step ahead, it just didn’t happen. We’ll train and go there to win [the rematch].”
I can’t say, ‘Look, we’ll change our strategy’, because we didn’t do our strategy. I believe in the strategies we have. I’m not taking anything away from Makhachev. Makhachev is a badass. All I’m saying is that Charles wasn’t on a good day, unfortunately.”
That strategy? Knock Makhachev out. “It’s a knockout.
It’s funny that people say, ‘But Charles has the most submissions [in UFC history],’ but the fight starts on the feet and we have a lot planned for the striking — and it continues when we go to the ground. Chandler went down and Charles got the TKO. Charles could have gone for the mount and a submission.
Charles is very strong. He’s attacking so well. That’s why I really believe in a knockout — but when they go down, then we have a submission.”
