Charles
Oliveira isn’t interested in a short-notice fight with no title
on the line.
According to a report published by Brazilian outlet
AgFight, “Do Bronx” was offered a fight against
Michael Chandler at UFC
258 on Feb. 13, with the winner moving on to face Dustin
Poirier for the lightweight belt.
Sherdog.com confirmed the news with Oliveira’s coach, Diego Lima,
who also revealed that his fighter turned down the bout.
“Charles had never been so close to the belt and it’s important to
note that he worked hard for that. He is on an eight-fight winning
streak, with seven coming via submission or KO. The fans and even
Poirier recognized that,” Lima said. “Today is Feb. 1. It makes no
sense for us to accept a title eliminator for 11 days from now.
“Charles needs time to lose weight, we lose about
two days with visa stuff and of course we need to prepare for the
fight itself,” he continued. “Our goal was fight for the belt
against Poirier, but if Poirier will not fight for the belt and the
UFC wants to make the Chandler fight for the belt, no problem.
But all champions have two or three months to make a camp to
get ready. We already did crazy stuff like accept Clay Guida in
10 days and Tony
Ferguson in 20, but I think that for all Charles has done, he
deserves to have a full camp to fight for that title.”