This past Saturday, Charles Oliveira extended his winning streak by getting a submission win over Kevin Lee in the third round.
Believe it or not, the lightweight didn’t enter the bout 100% as he actually suffered a shoulder injury that occurred during training. The 30-year-old actually questioned whether he would be able to fight on last weekend’s special event (Transcript courtesy of Sherdog):
“I had not known for 20 days whether I would be able to fight or not,” he said. “I had hurt my shoulder, but my team is different and said that I could get here and win. I never arrived as heavy as I arrived for this week, it was all a bit troubled. When I didn't make weight [three years ago], people said I was not a professional. People also said that about Kevin Lee this week, but I think he was a professional. We spent the whole week not knowing if this was going to happen or not.”
Luckily for the lightweight, the injury didn’t hinder his performance as both Lee and Oliveira had a strong back-and-forth bout with Oliveira getting the upper hand to lock in the guillotine choke. The Brazil native wanted to make history in his first fight behind closed doors:
“I came to make history again, this time without anyone cheering,” he said. “But as my team likes to say, it was written. We came to get what is ours. Of course, I wanted everyone to be there, but I'm sure that an audience that didn't know me yet had the opportunity to meet me today.”
There’s no word on when Oliveira could make a return to the octagon. The 30-year-old is a #8 ranked fighter in the 155-pound division thus he’ll surely be looking to face off against anyone above his ranking.