Written by Ilia Topuria knocked out Charles Oliveira at UFC 317 | Photo by Ian Maule/Getty Images
Charles Oliveira was knocked unconscious for the first time in his MMA career when he fought and lost to Ilia Topuria in the main event of UFC 317 on June 28, and he said the former featherweight champion was the one who hit him the hardest when compared to his previous 46 fights.
“I’ve never been knocked out before,” Oliveira told Ag. Fight. “I’ve been knocked down before, TKO’d, but had never been knocked out before. This time, no. I didn’t know what had happened, it was something new for me.”
“He’s definitely the one who hit me the hardest,” he continued. “I’ve been hit before by super tough guys like Justin Gaethje, Dustin Poirier, Michael Chandler, [guys] that knocked me down and hurt me, but he really hits hard.”
Oliveira reveals he had no recollection of the fight once it ended, and it felt weird to experience that for the first time.
“I asked many times what had happened, where I was, you know?” Oliveira said. ‘Diego [Lima], my wife and family [saying], ‘Relax, breathe, we’ll talk later.’ For real, it never happened like that before. It’s upsetting, it sucks, but it’s part of the game.”
“Do Bronx” once again came up short in his attempt to reclaim the lightweight championship. And more than the knockout itself, Oliveira said what hurt him the most was not perform the way he was planning to.
Oliveira said his strategy involved front kicks, oblique kicks and calf kicks to keep Topuria away, and not stand in front and on short rage from the undefeated talent. Instead, and for reasons he can’t explain, he fell in Topuria’s traps in Las Vegas.
“Everything I trained we didn’t do in the fight,” Oliveira said. “I’ve been doing this for many years and had never been knocked out that way before. It’s too complicated. … We’re talking about MMA and it’s very unpredictable. He was happy there and did a better job and became champion.”
Oliveira said he still sees him back in the conversation for a shot at the UFC belt with “one, two or three wins” against the right names, but won’t think about that at the moment. He will take some time to travel for seminars and then resume training for a return to action in the fourth quarter of 2025.
“November, early December, I wanna fight again this year,” Oliveira said. “I want to put on a good fight. I don’t know against who, but that would be the timing.”