Charles Oliveira is making a quick turn around.
The former UFC Lightweight Champion is coming fresh off his loss against the undefeated Ilia Topuria at UFC 317. But the 35-year-old is not known as someone who sits on the sidelines for a long period of time. That’s why it’s not surprising that Charles Oliveira has confirmed that he’ll be stepping back into the octagon on Oct. 11st against Rafael Fiziev.
As previously stated, Oliveira is coming off a big loss that eliminated 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.
Fiziev is trying to recapture the magic he had from 2019 - 2022. The lightweight was in the middle of a strong six fight winning streak, with some of those victories coming over Renato Moicano (UFC 256), Bobby Green (UFC 265), and former UFC Lightweight Champion Rafael dos Anjos (UFC on ESPN: dos Anjos vs. Fiziev). His luck changed when he fought Justin Gaethje, and that loss spiraled into two more losses that pushed him back in the rankings. Fiziev was able to bounce back with an impressive win over Ignacio Bahamondes. Fiziev is currently ranked at no. 10 within the division. His professional record stands at 13 wins and 4 losses.
Though it hasn’t been confirmed that this is the main event for UFC Rio, this is Oliveira’s home country and is a pay-per-view caliber fight, so it would be surprising if it wasn’t.
Now there was some concern about Charles making sure of a quick turnaround. He’s coming off a title fight that ended with him being knocked out. The lightweight addressed those concerns during a recent interview.
“Actually, I’d never been knocked out before — it was the first time,” Oliveira recently told Ag.Fight. “We’ll only know when I get back, and I wanted to get back as soon as possible, so we’re here. When the [UFC 317] fight ended, they asked me to stay two extra days, so I stayed and did all the tests.
“Everything’s fine, I’m ready,” Oliveira added. “They asked me to stay for two more days, and I came back feeling good. Nothing was wrong, I’m cleared, and I wanted to get back as soon as possible, and that’s what happened.”
Thus far, only six matches have been confirmed for the upcoming UFC show. Check out the advertised line-up for UFC Rio on October 11:
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Charles Oliveira vs. Rafael Fiziev
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Thomas Petersen vs. Vitor Petrino
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Karolina Kowalkiewicz vs. Julia Polastri
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Stewart Nicoll vs. Lucas Rocha
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Jhonata Diniz vs. Mario Pinto
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Irina Alekseeva vs. Bia Mesquita