Written by NEW YORK – Charles Oliveira asked for a cage-side seat for whenever Islam Makhachev and Arman Tsarukyan throw down.
Promotion CEO Dana White obliged that request in short order, impressed by the performance Oliveira (35-10 MMA, 23-10 UFC) put forth in his win over Michael Chandler on Saturday at UFC 309.
Oliveira has fought both Makhachev (26-1 MMA, 15-1 UFC) and Tsarukyan (22-3 MMA, 9-2 UFC) in the past, but he doesn’t care who walks away victorious. The only thing that matters to him is a championship belt.
“For sure. I want to be a champion,” Oliveira told MMA Junkie and other reporters through a Portuguese-language interpreter at a post-fight news conference. “Everybody knows this. I’m just going to take a couple days off. Since the boss told you guys he’ll come pick me up, I’ll be right there. … I’m not looking for any of them. I’m looking for that belt. Whoever’s got that belt, that’s who I want.”
Oliveira has won two of his most recent three. The defeat was a close split decision loss to Tsarukyan in April. Hungry to once again claim the throne, Oliveira thinks he took one step closer to that with his win over Chandler, a victory he’s very pleased of in the immediate aftermath.
“This is MMA,” Oliveira said. “I think all you want to do is win. It only shows how much I evolved and how much I got better. Old Charles, or Charles from before, would have tightened up a couple grips there and wasted energy or would’ve exploded a little bit to get out of certain positions. All I want to do was win.”
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Making Saturday’s win all the more incredible, Oliveira revealed his camp was bumpy. He suffered a knee injury that knocked him out of his preparation for a period of time, but he still carried out his mission in the end.
“I didn’t want to talk about it before, but yes I did have a knee injury,” Oliveira said. “I spent a lot of time actually without training. Things were tough. I wanted to thank first and foremost my team for not letting me back down, not letting me quit, not letting me stop and making this happen.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 309.