Charles Oliveira’s coach was defiant when discussing the
Brazilian’s dominance at UFC 326. | Getty/UFC
Two weeks after Charles
Oliveira’s BMF belt win over Max
Holloway at
UFC 326, Sherdog.com spoke with Chute Boxe leader Diego Lima
about his athlete’s next steps.
“Actually, Charles is returning from Las Vegas with his whole
family this Wednesday. Four days after the fight, he gave a seminar
in Germany and another in the Netherlands, returned to Vegas, and
flew to São Paulo yesterday,” Lima said.
According to the Chute Boxe head coach, Charles’ first option would
be to make himself available to the
UFC as a reserve for the main event fight at the
UFC White House.
“Hoping that neither of them gets injured, because it will be a
great fight, but we have already offered Charles as an option to be
the reserve for this fight at the White House,” Lima said. “Charles
wants the belt, so he could take the winner of Topuria and Gaethje,
or if the champion takes too long to return, make some kind of
super fight that makes sense. We have a few avenues to discuss with
Hunter [Campbell].”
The long-awaited super fight with Conor
McGregor is no longer a priority.
“Every time we talk about him it turns into a soap opera, so I
think it’s better not to get our hopes up,” Lima said. “Conor is a
giant. He said it and he did it. Obviously, it would be a pleasure
for Charles to move up to [welterweight] to have a super fight with
him and show him that it would have been better if he hadn’t come
back, but honestly, I don’t believe he’ll come back.”
DMF or BMF?
Diego also spoke about the criticism Charles received for his use
of dominant grappling to beat Holloway and win the BMF belt.
“Wasn’t it MMA? If it was supposed to be a K-1 fight, Dana could
have just used K-1 rules with MMA gloves. He fought under MMA rules
and not only managed to take the belt from a legend of the sport,
but also etched his name in history once again by achieving the
second-highest grappling dominance in history. The first is
[Khamzat
Chimaev vs. Dricus Du
Plessis] the second is Charles vs. Holloway, and the third is
[Islam
Makhachev vs. Jack
Della Maddalena]. And we’re talking about title fights at the
highest level of the sport. How come Charles doesn’t deserve the
BMF title?” Lima said.
“If Charles had stopped in the middle and exchanged blows until one
gets knocked out, the belt wouldn’t be BMF but the DMF (Dumbest
Motherf—-er). The curious thing is that the same people who
criticize Charles would be saying he was stupid for not using his
jiu-Jjtsu if he lost. That, to me, is envy.”