The first Charles Oliveira vs Islam Makhachev fight had one of the craziest buildups ever. ‘Do Bronx’ had beat up the likes of Chandler, Poirier, and Gaethje to retain his title while Makhachev was carrying the Khabib legacy. Fans were not let down as Makhachev won that fight in a pretty dominant fashion.
After UFC 280, there was a fair bit of confusion regarding who would the lightweight champ face next. The bout against Volkanovski was yet to be confirmed and Beneil Dariush didn’t have the biggest star power. Later it was revealed that the UFC offered the fight to Charles again but his team declined the fight.
“When we were going to face Makhachev, we showed a lot of interest in fighting him in Rio. One week after [UFC 280], the UFC got in touch with us. They gave us the opportunity to fight [Makhachev] in Rio. They have always been really good to us. We have really good talks. It was up to us to accept or not,” said Oliveira’s coach Diego Lima.
“I talked it over with Charles. He’s not injured, but there’s emotional stress. It’s way beyond physical. Charles is the only fighter that has faced all the top 5 guys within a year. Champs normally hide, they want to fight once a year. That’s not Charles, but Rio is way too close now. We prefer to give Charles a well-deserved vacation,” he further added.
Will we see Charles Oliveira vs Islam Makhachev in 2023?
Recently, ‘Do Bronx’ spoke about his plans in an interview, “I’ve been a long way from that belt. Today, I’m one fight away from him. UFC knows that – knows that I want. I didn’t come here to play. I came to make history. I want to fight around the end of March, or April, that’s my timing. I need to fight on that date. And I need a guy who (is) winning, will definitely be the next challenger for the title.”
“He (Islam Makhachev) will fight now in February, so I, in March, April, caught a guy who puts me in front of the goal again for the title at the end of the year. For sure {just one more fight to the belt}. Now I fight in March, April, and at the end of the year for the title again,” he concluded.
Islam Makhachev is set to take on Alexander Volkanovski on UFC 284.
