Submission specialist Charles Oliveira wants to prove he’s ready to go back to his weight class of choice. After finishing Christos Giagos at UFC Sao Paulo, the 28-year-old begged the UFC for another crack at the featherweight division, where he already missed in four different occasions before being forced to move up to lightweight.
Nonetheless, ‘Do Bronx’ tells Combate he’s ready and willing to do whatever it takes for a fifth chance. Even if it means facing the division’s most dangerous fighters.
“I told Dana White and everyone who’s willing to hear me out,” Oliveira said. “I want to go back to featherweight. I want to fight in December or November. You can call me, I’m ready, I’m not hurt, I just have minor finger and thigh injuries, it’s nothing. I want to go back to featherweight, that’s where I’ll be the champion.
“Put me in the mix. They’re always talking about guys who turn down fights. Throw me in the top-5. There’s Jose Aldo, Renato Moicano, that Russian guy nobody wants to fight (Zabit Magomedsharipov). I’ll fight anybody. I never turned down a fight. I’m not calling anybody out, I’m not better than anybody else, but I’m here to fight, not run.”
In Oliveira’s opinion, the only reason he missed weight in his last featherweight bout, when he faced Ricardo Lamas, in Mexico, and weighed in at 155 lbs, was because he took the fight on short notice.
“I had to fight at lightweight because, in Mexico, I took a fight on 20-day notice and I couldn’t make weight,” Oliveira said. “The UFC decided to move me up and it has been three fights now. I think guys are much stronger than me in this weight class, that’s not where I want to be. I think I can be a champion at both divisions, but my dream is to be the featherweight champion, because that’s where I feel well. If the UFC just gives me that one chance, they’ll see I won’t disappoint anybody.”
Charles’ rear-naked choke victory over Giagos also marked his eleventh submission win under the UFC’s banner, which broke the record previously held by legend Royce Gracie. Although Oliveira now considers himself a legend of the sport, too, he states that the mark will never change who he is as a person.
“I’m a legend now, but I’m still the same. I have my feet on the ground, I know where I came from. Why ‘Do Bronx’? Because I’m from the slums, those are my roots. We’re going to break many more records. We’re going to be champions, for sure. It’s like Dhiego Lima said, one step at a time. Today we broke Royce’s record, but there are many jiu-jitsu fighters who are better than me in the UFC. You just need to keep training, that’s what I’m doing. From my last three fights to now, I became a new Charles.”
Charles Oliveira has scored three submission wins ever since he moved back up to the lightweight division, finishing Giagos, Clay Guida, and Will Brooks. His only loss came in December 2017, when he was knocked out by Paul Felder.