Former UFC Lightweight Champion Charles Oliveira recently gave his take on his brutal submission loss to Islam Makhachev at UFC 280.
Charles Oliveira was on an 11-fight winning streak heading into the bout. “Do Bronx” won the title vacated by Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 262 with a TKO win over Michael Chandler. Oliveira retained the gold against Dustin Poirier at UFC 269 before being stripped of the title due to not making weight at UFC 274.
Despite the setback, Charles Oliveira still dismantled Justin Gaethje with a first-round submission win to set up his title bout with Makhachev. To the surprise of many, Makhachev’s elite-level wrestling nullified much of Oliveira’s first-class jiu-jitsu. The Dagestani grappler secured the gold with an arm-triangle choke in round two.
After a lengthy silence on the defeat, Charles Oliveira has finally shed some light on his mindset coming out of the bout.
“He Was Just Better Than Me” – Charles Oliveira Candid About Makhachev Defeat
In a recent interview with Super Lutas, Charles Oliveira opined that Islam Makhachev was simply the superior fighter on the night.
“Against Makhachev, I didn’t feel any pressure… He was just better than me. I haven’t watched that fight back yet. It doesn’t make any difference to me. It wasn’t a bad night… just 15 bad minutes… 10 to 20 bad minutes,” Charles Oliveira explained, “There’s nothing else to say. You know I always tell the truth. I already thought about it, but there’s no real explanation.”
When it comes to a potential rematch, Charles Oliveira did not divulge any potential game plan changes. He highlighted his high-level of training for the fight and successful weight cut as further evidence that he couldn’t have done anything different against the surging Makhachev.
“I wouldn’t change anything in a rematch, I know how much I trained. As far as the fight goes, what can I say other than that Islam was better than me. I wouldn’t change the camp nor the weight cut, I wouldn’t change absolutely anything. I don’t know exactly what happened, but Islam was better than me on that night.”
Charles Oliveira is yet to have a fight announced following his UFC 280 defeat. Islam Makhachev, meanwhile, is set to defend the UFC Lightweight Championship against UFC Featherweight Champion Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 284.
