Sign up for ESPN+ right here, and you can then stream the UFC live on
your smart TV, computer, phone, tablet or streaming device via the
ESPN app. It should come as a shock to absolutely no one that the
coach of Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight
champ expects his fighter will win impressively. The current lightweight king, Charles
Oliveira, has won in each of his last 10 outings, including
nine by finish. Fresh off of a December win over Dustin
Poirier, Oliveira did not waste much time before preparing for
his next challenge: Justin
Gaethje. “Do Bronx” will face off against the vaunted striker
at
UFC 274, a card that was initially announced for Brazil, but
was shifted to the U.S. due to the pandemic. Oliveira was not
thrilled about this relocation, per his coach Diego Lima, who spoke
to Sherdog this week about the matchup and much more.
“Definitely, it was a big disappointment,” Lima explained. “There
is no bigger emotion for a champion than to fight [in front of
their] home crowd. From the 29 fights Charles did in [the] UFC, he
fought six times in Brazil. Coincidence or not, he won all of them.
Fighting with the support of the Brazilian crowd is priceless at
least to a Brazilian fighter.”
The coach also recalled that Oliveira was the first to fight
without the public, doing so in the beginning of the pandemic
against Kevin Lee in
Brasilia. “Do Bronx” would have preferred to be the first to fight
in front of a Brazilian crowd again as a local champion, but he
understands it is complicated.
“Of course Charles got really sad when he got the news, but we know
the difficult moments the world is passing through. All the
bureaucracy and politics involved in a decision like that. There is
nothing we could do, except train harder and fight our best to keep
our belt,” the leader of Chute Boxe Sao Paulo lamented.
Coming off an impressive win in the second round against Poirier,
where the champ was criticized for receiving too much blows in the
first round, Lima revealed that they didn’t make any changes in his
training routine.
“Charles is getting more complete each time in all areas, and
people were able to feel that in his last ten fights,” the head
coach admitted. “Today, he is not a jiu-jitsu fighter in MMA; he is
an MMA fighter and a world MMA champion. Our camp is basically the
same; Charles has a schedule where he trains everything. A lot of
muay Thai, wrestling, ground [training]. Our goal is always the
same: finish the fight, and my concern, as trainer, is to find what
the opponent will bring to us and start to work over that.”
Lima continued, “Against [Kevin Lee], we
worked a lot on frontal kicks; against [Tony
Ferguson], we knew that get him stabilized in the ground would
be a great choice; against [Michael
Chandler], we worked on Charles better range; against Poirier,
we knew his boxing skills were great, and once Charles just walks
forward, we worked on the knee [strikes].”
Against Gaethje, Lima’s coach was quick to note that taking
advantage of Gaethje’s aggressiveness is a key tactic in the
fight.
“Gaethje is a very aggressive opponent with a lot of weapons and we
are working over his game in all areas,” Lima stated. “All I can
say is that you can expect an Oliveira as aggressive as the one who
fought Poirier, not leaving results in judges’ hands. You will
never see Charles entering in the Octagon to not lose. He will
always fight to win, and you can expect another impressive one over
Gaethje.
