Coming off an impressive sequence of eight straight wins, Charles
Oliveira was recently confirmed to face ex-Bellator champion
Michael
Chandler for the vacant lightweight crown at
UFC 262 on May 15.
Shortly thereafter, Oliveira revealed to Sherdog.com the curious
manner in which he received the most important news of his fighting
career. After Khabib
Nurmagomedov confirmed his retirement and rumors of a
lightweight title bout between Justin
Gaethje and Chandler became prevalent, Oliveira decided to
spend some time relaxing on his ranch.
“When some fan asked me what I thought about that fight, I answered
it would be a great fight between two killers. I wanted to fight
for the belt, so once I didn’t have that fight confirmed I decided
to go on Thursday night to my ranch, where the telephone just
doesn’t work. But my father had to go to the city to buy some stuff
and saw many calls from my trainer, Diego Lima, and told me about
that.
“At that moment I knew Diego wanted to tell me something important,
and I immediately drove to the city. In the middle of the road
the telephone signal returned, I opened a message from
master Jorge Patino
saying ‘Congratulations champ, your dream came true, you are the
next contender.’ I immediately stopped the car and started to
cry, hugging my father. After 11 years of hard work in UFC I
finally reached my goal.”
The announcement of the title fight against Chandler in the UFC 262
main event prompted an immediate meeting between Oliveira and Lima
to discuss plans for his training camp, which will be shared
between the headquarters of Chute Boxe in Sao Paulo and his academy
in Guaruja, which is located 60 miles away from the Brazilian
capital.
“I´ll drive 60 miles from Monday to Friday, and every Saturday
Diego brings the team to train with me here. There are people who
leave their countries to train. Driving 60 miles to stay close to
my family and friends is no sacrifice,” Oliveira said.
Oliveira believes Chandler’s heavy hands will be his greatest area
of concern.
“If he takes me down, he will do me a favor. I believe he will
pretty much try to keep the fight standing and repeat what he did
with Dan
Hooker, but if he has one good punch, I have many more
combinations,” Oliveira said. “Furthermore, I´ll not run from him
like Hooker did. On the contrary, for each of his attempts, I will
have a stronger answer. Of course Chandler deserves credit for that
debut win, but if Hooker were not so concerned to talk bulls—t
about me in the week of the fight, I´m sure that he could have done
better.”
Oliveira also pointed out the importance of his Iranian wrestling
coach.
“He improved my wrestling a lot,” Oliveira said. “If you see my
last fights, I took down all my opponents and of course will focus
on that discipline against Chandler.”
But when asked to predict how his fight with Chandler will end,
Oliveira did not hesitate.
“He always comes very strong, and I´ll catch him with a counter
hit.”
When discussing the critics, Bronx also answered Chael
Sonnen, who recently said that Oliveira did everything wrong
outside of the Octagon to promote himself.
“Sonnen must understand that this sport is disputed inside of the
cage,” Oliveira said. “That’s what fans pay for. I´m coming from
eight straight wins and have broken many submission records. Put me
inside the cage and I´ll give what the fans [want]. That´s what I
train for.
“If trash talk transforms you into a UFC champion, probably Khabib,
GSP and most of UFC champions wouldn’t reach the title and
Sonnen would. Sonnen has never been a UFC champion. I want to be a
champion without disrespecting anyone.”
If he defeats Chandler at UFC 262, Oliveira could be in line for a
title defense against the winner of the rumored Dustin
Poirier–Conor
McGregor trilogy fight. Oliveira sees Poirier as the clear
favorite in the third meeting between the two lightweights.
“Conor is really dangerous in the first two rounds, but I see
Poirier with more experience and volume to take this third fight.
But of course my focus now is totally on Michael
Chandler. Definitely this division is a shark tank. Every
fight is a different war.”