The UFC tried to book Charles Oliveira vs
Islam Makhachev for
#UFC295 at MSG after Jon Jones pulled out.Charles Oliveira turned it down since the cut still hadn’t fully
healed.#UFC
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pic.twitter.com/3BcMYKIZJu
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS)
June 8, 2024
The cut that forced Charles
Oliveira out of
UFC 294 proved to be quite costly.
Oliveira was scheduled to challenge Islam
Makhachev for the lightweight title at UFC 294 in October 2023.
However, the night before Oliveira was supposed to leave for Abu
Dhabi from Brazil, “do Bronx” suffered a nasty cut in sparring that
forced him out of the matchup. Oliveira was replaced on 12 days’
notice by Alexander
Volkanovski, who went on to suffer a vicious first-round
knockout loss. The latest season of “Fight Inc: Inside the UFC”
shows behind the scenes footage of what went on after Oliveira
pulled out.
UFC president Dana White came down hard on Oliveira for
jeopardizing a title fight by sparring without headgear days prior.
He was also unimpressed by the way Oliveira’s team handled things
instead of letting the UFC take care of it.
“How about this? How about they f—-ing call us and let us f—-ing
fix it and tell them what to do” White said in a converstion with
UFC executives “… Sparring with no headgear, the week before he
leaves for the fight here, no the day, he’s supposed to leave
today… he’s going the night before, sparring with no f—-ing
headgear … That cost him big money.”
Dana White was NOT happy when he found out
about Charles Oliveira’s cut that forced him to pull out of the
Islam Makhachev fight 😳“He’s going the night before, sparring with no f***ing
headgear.”#UFC
#MMA— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS)
June 8, 2024
Oliveira’s cut happened due to an accidental headbutt while
grappling. Matchmaker Sean Shelby noted that the headbutt cost the
Brazilian roughly $2 million.
However, that was not the only time that headbutt cost Oliveira
money.
The promotion was posed with similar problems a month later when
Jon
Jones was forced out of the scheduled UFC 295 headliner against
Stipe
Miocic due to a pectoral injury. One replacement option that
UFC exec Hunter
Campbell considered was Makhachev vs. Oliveira.
“I could try to see if Islam and Oliveira want to go,” Campbell
told White. “Islam took no f—-ing damage. I don’t think he took a
single strike. And [Oliveira’s] cut will be ready by then too.”
White seemed to be excited by that possibility.
“I f—-ing love that actually,” he said. “That’s a f—-ing great
idea.”
The offer was then made to Oliveira’s team over a call. Oliveira’s
team could be heard telling Campbell that it wouldn’t be possible
for him to fight.
“So it’s November against Makhachev?… Even being this, it’s not
possible against Islam,” was the response (translation via
UFC).
Campbell then told White that Oliveira wouldn’t be able to make it,
as he was still visiting the doctor for the cut, which required two
layers of stitches.
“Oliveira cannot do it… Because the cut’s still not f—-ing healed
and he hasn’t been training. He’s still, according to the doctors,
no contact for 10 more days. The cut was so f—ing deep, he had two
layers of stitches.”
“I went from being bummed to being excited, to being bummed again,”
White replied.
The original co-headliner for
UFC 295, a light heavyweight title fight between Alex
Pereira and Jiri
Prochazka was promoted to the main event. Meanwhile, a short
notice interim heavyweight title fight between Tom
Aspinall and Sergei
Pavlovich took the co-main spot, where the Englishman knocked
out the Russian.
Meanwhile, Oliveira, after missing two opportunities to rematch
Makhachev, ended up losing a close split decision against Arman
Tsarukyan in a title eliminator at UFC 300 in April.