Vinicius
Oliveira has revealed the injury that hindered him toward the
end of his victory over Said
Nurmagomedov at UFC
Saudi Arabia this past Saturday.
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“LokDog” plans to take six weeks to recover and is eyeing a return
to the Octagon this summer following his unanimous decision win
over Nurmagomedov, which received “Fight of the Night” honors.
“The name is costochondritis. It is an inflammation of the
cartilage that connects the rib to the chest,” Oliveira told
Sherdog.com. “The pain is so severe that 30% of [people who think
they are suffering a heart attack] are due to costochondritis. The
pain is so severe that I couldn’t [train properly] during the week
of the fight. Grappling, no way. As it is cartilage, there is no
way to infiltrate it. All I could do was take paracetamol and
codeine, which made me very slow and really affected my performance
in the first round.
“The treatment for it is six weeks of absolute rest and
physiotherapy. You won’t need surgery or anything. This injury took
me out of the fight against Farid
Basharat in October last year. I thought it was gone when I
started the camp for Said, but it wasn’t. It attacked me twice
during the camp, the last time with eight days to go before the
fight when the entire team had already been in Riyadh for over a
week.”
Thanks to plenty of past experience fighting in Abu Dhabi under the
UAE Warriors banner, Oliveira was well aware of the importance of
arriving early to adjust to the time zone.
“Among those seven fights in the Middle East, the only time I
arrived three days before, I had one of the worst performances of
my life. Since then, I’d rather invest my own money,” he said.
“This time I arrived 16 days before with three coaches. The win and
the bonus paid back all my investment and will give me financial
support for my next camp.”
Once his recovery is complete, Oliveira plans to venture to
Thailand to supplement his training.
“Carlos
Prates, who lived there for a long time, will even help me by
indicating the best place to train,” he said. “I’m going with my
trainer. My idea is to return from there at the end of April with a
fight scheduled for June or July.”
Oliveira also explained why he issued a post-fight callout to
recent bantamweight title challenger Umar
Nurmagomedov following his latest victory.
“The week of my debut against [Bernardo] Sopai, he fought on the
same card,” Oliveira said. “Since I saw a lot of people saying no
bantamweight wanted to face Umar, right after winning the bonus I
made a post tagging Dana [White] and the UFC and asking for this
fight. He didn’t like it and started sending DMs calling for me to
fight in the street, and I told him not to be a p—y and behave as a
professional by accepting the fight. With this victory over Said I
am 4-0 [against Russians]. My game doesn’t fit with theirs. I hope
the UFC gives me the opportunity to fight more Russians.”
If the UFC doesn’t want to give him such a highly-ranked foe next,
Oliveira has another option in mind.
“Aiemann
Zahabi is the No. 13 [in the UFC rankings],” he said. “I think
it could be a nice matchup with a great chance to get a third
bonus.”