After a devastating title loss at UFC 280, the question is: Where will Charles Oliviera go from here? As a fan of Charles, I think he is more than deserving of a rematch after a title defeat but it is pretty obvious UFC is trying to make the Volk/Islam fight. A likely fight for Charles will be a #1 contender fight with Beneil Dariush and if he can win that I think he'll get another shot at the 155 title.
The lightweight division is super stacked so I understand having to throw people into title fights and not giving immediate rematches just because of the depth of the division. However, I do not think there is a question that Charles is the biggest name in the UFC right now in the absence of Conor McGregor, maybe the only ones bigger being Izzy? Maybe Usman? My point being, him in the title picture is just better for the promotion as a whole.
Charles got beat in the fight, his groundwork was not bad in the first round, he worked well from the bottom. But Islam proved that he belonged, although I dread a tite reign of a boring sambo wrestler. It was fun seeing Islam strike on the feet and he had a lot of success there, but his mission was always the same: get on top and find a submission. He did. He will likely take on Volk for the 155 strap in Australia and that will be an awesome super-fight with double-champ status on the line for 'The Great'. I look forward to that fight.
I do think Charles will be back, the under-performance will only cause him to come back stronger. I do not believe we have seen the last of Charles Oliveira with gold strapped across his waist.
Written by Joe Gee
Top comments (2)
Nice. I think Islam will dominate for a while yet and a rematch will have the same outcome.
What do you think of Charles Oliveira vs Conor McGregor?
I think it’s very unlikely Conor says yes to that fight if Charles doesn’t have gold.