The coach of former Ultimate Fighting Championship champion
Charles
Oliveira has made public his secret weapon to prepare Oliveira
for his next fight.
In October, ex-lightweight king Oliveira will vie for the vacant
belt against Islam
Makhachev at UFC 280. The Brazilian only lost his title after
missing weight by a fraction of a pound, and he went on to tap
Justin
Gaethje in the first round to record the victory. The surging
32-year-old has beaten Kevin Lee,
Tony
Ferguson, Michael
Chandler, Dustin
Poirier and Gaethje in the span of a little over two years,
firmly cementing himself as the best fighter in the division.
Oliveira is coached by Diego Lima, the head of Chute Boxe, who
earned a nomination in the 2022 World MMA Awards
for “Coach of the Year” due to his fine work in building
Oliveira into the force that he has become. Lima spoke to Sherdog
on Wednesday about his fighter’s achievement, as well as his
own.
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“I was really happy to have my job recognized worldwide,” a
thrilled Lima told Sherdog. “What Charles is doing, together with
Chute Boxe’s support, just proves something I’ve been saying for a
long time: Brazilian fighters [don’t] need to leave the country to
be champions.”
Chute Boxe is a team effort, and Lima is not the sole coach of the
Brazilian stable, and it is gaining attention from outside
observers. Recently, Fight Ready’s Eric Albarracin
spoke about Oliveira’s training, and he believed that there is
more that can be done at Chute Boxe and Oliveira himself regarding
his wrestling. As it turned out, Lima had quietly answered one of
those questions several years ago, and he felt it prudent to share
this information: Oliveira trains with an Iranian wrestler,
Alireza
Noei, and he has for almost three years.
“Ali is not just a top wrestler, he did a great job adapting it to
MMA,” Lima explained. “I have one friend who trained in Russia,
later spent some time training with Khabib [Nurmagomedov] and
Makhachev in AKA. He also trained with Ali here in Chute Boxe, and
he told me Ali was the best [wrestler that had adapted to MMA] he
ever seen in his life.”
Some prognosticate that Makhachev’s wrestling will be the
difference-maker in their meeting, if Makhachev can stifle the
offensively-minded Brazilian on the mat. Lima is not so sure about
that, and made it a point to note that homework is being done on
Makhachev.
“One thing I can guarantee for sure, wherever this fight goes,
Charles will be attacking,” the head coach said confidently of his
fighter. “Charles never fights to not lose; his goal is always
knockout or submit all the time. That’s why I have no doubt this
fight will not go 25 minutes.”
Lima and the team eventually accepted the decision made by the
Arizona Department of Gaming on May 6 ahead of UFC 274, but it
resulted in a change for the team. Due to the reported
miscommunication and dispute about alleged backstage scale
differences, Chute Boxe has updated its protocol as it pertains to
weigh-ins.
“We are taking a big team with us two weeks before to get adapted
to the time zone; also, after what happened in the last edition, we
are also taking our own scale,” Lima stated. “From UFC 274 on, no
matter if in [the] UFC or any other event in the world, we started
to film every time our fighters [when they] step [on] the
scale.”