[autotag]Charles Oliveira[/autotag] took the longest road of any UFC fighter before winning a championship, and we can only imagine what he’s been feeling since Saturday night – especially now that he’s returned to the favela where he grew up in Brazil.
“Do Bronx,” in his 28th UFC fight and nearly 11 years later with the promotion, claimed the vacant lightweight title less than 48 hours ago with a second-round TKO of Michael Chandler in the UFC 262 main event at Toyota Center in Houston.
On Monday, Oliveira arrived in his hometown of Guaruja, Sao Paulo with his UFC belt in hand and received a hero’s welcome from the locals before hopping on a fire truck to parade through town, which you can see in the video below:
Aside from the parade, Oliveira also was immortalized with a mural painted by artist Wilis Cavalcante. According to MMA Fighting, Cavalcante spent 24 hours on the 1,070-foot mural, which you can see in the video below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0QZN1egWRU
As was the case with Francis Ngannou last month when he returned to Cameroon, this is the treatment of UFC champs we love to see.
The Blue Corner is MMA Junkie’s blog space. We don’t take it overly serious, and neither should you. If you come complaining to us that something you read here is not hard-hitting news, expect to have the previous sentence repeated in ALL CAPS.
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