Brazilian UFC star Charles Oliveira takes on Ilia Topuria in the big fight at UFC 317 on June 28th in Nevada, and the 35-year-old, who saw off Michael Chandler last November to secure his 35th win, believes he’ll make light work of his unbeaten Georgian-Spanish opponent.
It’s now 17 years since the former undisputed Lightweight champion made his UFC debut in Sao Paulo, and he will hope that he can take care of a fighter seven years his junior.
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Topuria knocked out Max Holloway in his last fight and will be full of confidence ahead of his clash, but nonetheless, Oliveira has made his own bold prediction about what will transpire.
“It’s a great fight, he’s a great fighter. But I don’t need to prove anything to anyone about who I am,”
“This fight came as a huge opportunity. I will knock out this guy. That’s for real.” Oliveira added.
The betting for the event does not represent this assertion, with Topuria being the big favorite, and that should come as no surprise given just how dominant the 28-year-old has been throughout his UFC career.
He has won all 8 of his UFC fights, five by knockout and one by submission, and while the experience and guile that Oliveira brings to the occasion won’t make this a walkover, it would be something of a surprise if he were to pull it off.
However, one thing that may aid his cause is the fact that Topuria has chosen to split with his coach ahead of the clash, a move that has confused many.
Ray Longo, who has coached no fewer than four UFC champions, including Matt Serra, Chris Weidman, Aljamain Sterling and Merab Dvalishvili, doesn’t feel that such a decision close to a fight could prove a problem.
“That coach can come in for one or two weeks and, I’m not saying make a big difference, but can hold to what they were doing. Everybody makes this decision after they’re already on the top for a while, you know what I mean? Would he have made that decision as he was coming up when he really needed the guy?”
“That’s where I get a little salty with this. Like hey, if you’re going to do it, do it at the beginning. I go back to what Teddy Atlas said to me in that interview, he said Cus D’amato always told him, ‘What a guy does in the end, is what he always wanted to do in the beginning.'”
That said, Longo still feels confident that Topuria will ease to victory, adding.
“He looks like he’s squared away to me,”
The clash between Oliveira and Topuria has only come about because Islam Makhachev is moving from lightweight, thereby not defending his belt and title. Indeed, when Topuria moved to lightweight, his featherweight title went to Alexander Volkanovski, and it will be interesting to see how all these fighters fare in their new divisions.