UFC officially has a new main event.
Last week, it was confirmed that Rafael Fiziev was pulled from UFC Rio due to injury and that Charles Oliveira was in need of a new fight partner. Now the former UFC Lightweight Champion wasn’t particularly thrilled with numerous fighters turning down the opportunity and he criticized the weak excuses they gave him.
“Everybody knows my UFC Rio fight is off,” Oliveira said on Instagram Stories, “But don’t fall for the talk of these guys out there [saying] ‘I’m here, I’ll go,’ because the UFC is calling and they’re all saying, ‘Oh, there’s not enough time to make weight. Oh, I can’t.’ They’re posting this on the internet to get hype.
“Stop it, it’s not a good look. I saw one saying this, another saying that, but when the UFC calls, what do they say? ‘Oh, I can’t. I got belly ache. I broke a finger. I hurt my hand.’ Enough with that, it’s not a good look.”
Luckily for Charles, a few fighters put their names in a hat to fight the Bronx native. Diego Lopes was a notable one who said he was willing to step in and take on the lightweight. Joaquim Silva and Mateusz Gamrot also answered the challenge. And Gamrot was ultimately confirmed as Oliveira’s new opponent for UFC Rio.
“Opponent: Mateusz Gamrot,” Oliveira said on social media. “This is the guy we’re going to battle in a great war. The rest just wanted the hype, just wanted to stall and talk but that’s part of it, that’s how it is.
“Mateusz Gamrot, thank you for accepting the fight. It’s going to be a big war! The lion is hungry. I’m full of willpower. We’ll meet on Oct. 11.”
Oliveira is coming off a huge loss that knocked him from Lightweight title contention momentarily. Oliveira’s record in his past six fights is rather mixed as Charles has only won three out of them. However, his wins over Michael Chandler (UFC 309), Beneil Dariush (UFC 289), and Justin Gaethje (UFC 274) were pretty huge. Despite the spotty record, Oliveira is one of the best fighters in the lightweight division as he was on a massive 11 fight winning streak before Islam Makhachev broke it. Oliveira is currently ranked as no. 4 in the division. His professional record is 35 wins and 11 losses.
Gamrot is fresh off an impressive win over Ľudovít Klein back in May. Though he suffered at split decision loss to Dan Hooker at UFC 305, the lightweight’s record in his last five fights is pretty good as he’s only lost one out of four. Gamrot is currently ranked at number eight in the divisional rankings. His professional record currently stands at 25 wins and 3 losses.
Check out the updated line-up for UFC Rio:
UFC Rio Main Card On ESPN+ (7 p.m. ET):
155 lbs.: Charles Oliveira vs. Mateusz Gamrot
265 lbs.: Vitor Petrino vs. Thomas Petersen
115 lbs.: Julia Polastri vs. Karolina Kowalkiewicz
170 lbs.: Vicente Luque vs. Santiago Ponzinibbio
135 lbs.: Deiveson Figueiredo vs. Montel Jackson
170 lbs.: Gabriel Bonfim vs. Randy Brown
UFC Rio ‘Prelims’ Card On ESPN+ (4 p.m. ET):
125 lbs.: Lucas Rocha vs. Stewart Nicoll
265 lbs.: Jhonata Diniz vs. Mario Pinto
135 lbs.: Irina Alekseeva vs. Beatriz Mesquita
125 lbs.: Jafel Filho vs. Clayton Carpenter
155 lbs.: Lucas Almeida vs. Michael Aswell
145 lbs.: Ricardo Ramos vs. Kaan Ofli
265 lbs.: Valter Walker vs. Mohammed Usman