Vinicius
Oliveira reignited his feud with Umar
Nurmagomedov after a victory over Ricky Simon
at UFC
303.
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Oliveira earned a unanimous decision win over Simon to start off
the UFC 303 action at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday.
“Lok Dog” subsequently called for a fight against Nurmagomedov,
though he doesn’t expect the Dagestani to accept it.
Oliveira and Nurmagomedov have previously traded barbs on Instagram
DMs following the Brazilian’s UFC debut back in March. Both
fighters had claimed they would best each other in a street fight
and expressed interest in a potential clash. However, Oliveira
believes Nurmagomedov will be scared to fight him after watching
his latest performance against Simon. Oliveira displayed excellent
takedown defense against Simon, who is a seasoned grappler.
Expecting Nurmagomedov to dodge him, Oliveira called for a clash
against Dominick
Cruz.
“I would like to fight so much against Umar
Nurmagomedov. He was [using] some bad words on Instagram, on
social media. But he [is] scared of me right now,” Olivieira said
at a post-fight media scrum. “He must be watching my
last fight here. And he know that it is not easy to put me in the
ground. And [at that] exact moment he must be meet some nightmare
with me. So, I think he will refuse to fight against me for the
first time. So, I would like to fight against Dominick
Cruz, maybe, I don’t know.”
Vinicius Oliveira has revealed Instagram
DM’s with Umar Nurmagomedov following their victories at
#UFCVegas87. 👀Is this a fight you’d be interested in? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/ZiTgxsvP4m
— MMA Orbit (@mma_orbit)
March 5, 2024
Nurmagomedov is currently slated to meet Cory
Sandhagen (17-4) in the main event at UFC Abu Dhabi on Aug. 3.
The winner of the high-caliber matchup is expected to gain
relevance in title talks. However, Oliveira believes Nurmagomedov
will continue ducking him regardless of the outcome of that
fight.
“I know that, but I think he was running away [from] me. He can
[lose] this fight. He’ll keep running away [from] me,” Oliveira
said. “He can win. He’ll keep running away [from] me. Because these
guys have no courage to fight against me. For sure that. Believe in
my words, if I fight against this guy, he won’t put me on the
ground and I will put him on the ground.”
Saturday marked Oliveira’s sophomore UFC win after a flying-knee KO
of Bernardo
Sopai in his promotional debut. Meanwhile, Simon is on a
three-fight skid.