PHOENIX – MMA math doesn’t always work, but for lightweight champion [autotag]Charles Oliveira[/autotag], this is the equation heading into UFC 274.
“He fought a guy for three rounds. I knocked him out with my left hand,” Oliveira told reporters, including MMA Junkie, at Wednesday’s media day. “So whatever the hype is, whatever the talk is, I don’t listen to it. The champion is Charles Oliveira, and it’s gonna stay this way.”
“He,” of course, is [autotag]Justin Gaethje[/autotag]. And as for “him,” that’s Michael Chandler Oliveira is talking about.
Oliveira (32-8 MMA, 20-8 UFC) dropped Chandler with a left hook that led to a second-round TKO last May to claim the vacant lightweight title. Six months later, Chandler pushed Gaethje (23-3 MMA, 6-3 UFC) to the limits in the 2021 Fight of the Year, which Gaethje won by decision after three hellacious rounds.
That Gaethje victory earned the former interim champ an undisputed title shot against Oliveira, and the two will headline UFC 274 on Saturday at Footprint Center in a fight that very well could be a war, which tends to happen when Gaethje is involved.
“Listen, (Gaethje) is a truck,” Oliveira said. “He only moves forward; I only move forward. So there’s definitely gonna be collisions, definitely gonna be a clash. I’m not a jiu-jitsu fighter anymore. I’m a complete MMA fighter. I want everyone to know. It seems like guys are not getting the picture.”
Oliveira’s heart has been questioned repeatedly in the past, but it shouldn’t be after consecutive impressive finishes of Chandler and Dustin Poirier (by second-round submission) in two title bouts.
Still, Gaethje has made bold claims about making Oliveira “walk through hell” and breaking him in the cage on Saturday.
For Oliveira, that’s just talk. And talk is cheap.
“Listen, to each their own. People approach fights differently – people talk, people don’t like to talk,” Oliveira said. “If I liked to talk, I’d bring a parrot up here instead of myself. I let my fight do my talking for me. He can say whatever he wants. It does not bother me. I’m only worried about what I’m gonna do in the fight.”
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