Charles
Oliveira claims that he wasn’t in the right mindset heading
into his lightweight title bout against Islam
Makhachev at UFC 280.
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In an interview with Brazilian outlet
AgFight, Oliveira admitted that his mentality was affected by
the tension surrounding the fight, which Makhachev won via
second-round submission in October 2022. Part of that was due to
statements made by Khabib
Nurmagomedov expressing extreme confidence in his protege.
Those, Oliveira says, caused him to “get too involved” in wanting
to make a statement against his opponent.
“Do Bronx” has vowed that he won’t get distracted by outside
comments before his rematch with Makhachev at UFC 294.
“I said some things for that fight that I shouldn’t have said. That
wasn’t me. I ended up getting too emotionally involved,” Oliveira
said. “I’ll never say I’m going to kill someone, curse or anything
like that. And at times I ended up saying this about Islam: ‚Oh,
I’m going to kill this guy, I’m going to do this and that.’ I never
said that in my life. I ended up responding to things that were
said by them at the press conference. This time I just want to be
me.”
The rematch with Makhachev will occur almost exactly one year after
their first meeting. Oliveira says he still hasn’t watched that
fight.
“No [I didn’t watch the fight]. I don’t really like talking about
fighting, because people talk too much,” he said. “From the bottom
of my heart, in the fight against Islam, it wasn’t me inside. I
didn’t find myself. Islam was better than me that night. I just
want to find myself in the fight. I don’t have the feeling that I
was there, I did my best, I fought a war. I want to be 100%
mentally, spiritually and physically to make it happen.”