Charles Oliveira’s MMA journey has been nothing short of spectacular.
Having made his UFC debut in August 2010, it took Oliveira 10 years to get his hands on championship gold in Dana White‘s promotion.
Now, ‘Do Bronx’ fights in the octagon once again as he seeks to eventually dethrone Islam Makhachev of the middleweight belt he once held.
Michael Chandler, Oliveira’s opponent on Saturday, is one of the UFC’s toughest fighters, but also has the same ambitions as his Brazilian counterpart.
Last week, he revealed a plan for 2025 that included becoming the UFC’s oldest lightweight champion, after beating Oliveira and having an eventual bout with Conor McGregor.
Both men will meet for five rounds in the lightweight division come Saturday night at New York’s iconic Madison Square Garden in what is expected to be a blockbuster co-main event bout.
Oliveira didn’t have the best start to his UFC career, racking up two defeats and a no-contest decision in his first five appearances for the promotion.
In fact his third UFC fight, which he lost to Jim Miller after the American submitted him with a kneebar, was the first-ever loss of his MMA career after 14 successive wins.
Seven years after making his debut Oliveira had fought 19 times in White’s octagon, losing eight of those bouts.
He was very nearly regarded as a lost cause because of the accumulated losses and other factors, such as missing weight five separate times—until everything changed.
Following his loss to Paul Felder in December 2017 – which marked the last defeat for nearly five years – Oliveira embarked on an 11-fight win streak.
What’s interesting about this period is that Oliveira’s daughter, Tayla, was born around the same time.
Numerous MMA fans cite this as one of the reasons for the current No.2 ranked lightweight almost turning into the best pound-for-pound fighters on the planet.
“I already have a daughter and my son is coming; this motivates me so much,” Oliveira said ahead of his last octagon appearance, before suffering a split-decision defeat to Arman Tsarukyan at UFC 300 in April.
“Everyone knows that some years ago, when my daughter was born, I had a winning streak, so now that my son Dominic is on the way, I believe the same can happen.”
Oliveira turned into a different fighter following the birth of his daughter, walking right into the line of fire in each bout, resembling a mad man, who didn’t take any shortcuts with maximum risk and 100 per cent confidence.
It didn’t matter how hard you hit him, as he always seemed to hit you back harder.
Over a four-year period from 2018 to 2022, Oliveira beat some of the best fighters in the UFC, including Justin Gaethje, Dustin Poirier, Tony Ferguson and Chandler.
Oliveira’s first bout with Chandler was for the lightweight belt, as Khabib Nurmagomedov had retired seven months prior, and the 35-year-old finished the American in the second round.
During this time, Oliveira also broke the record for the most finishes in UFC history with 20, and the most submission victories with 16—two records he still holds to date,
In the last win of his 11-fight win streak, however, he missed weight and was stripped of his lightweight belt.
So, although overcoming Gaethje in the subsequent bout, the title was made vacant and Oliveira dropped the title to Makhachev at UFC 280 in his following bout.
He then returned and knocked out Beneil Dariush in the first round eight months later, before losing to Tsarukyan, who is likely to contest Makhachev for the lightweight title next.
Interestingly, Oliveira welcomed his second child, Dominic Oliveira Brum, into the world in October.
He was asked about this and if he can repeat the relentless win streak, similar to when his first child was born in 2017, at UFC 309’s final press conference on Thursday
“There’s nothing that clicked. You have to fight for something, I had to do something,” he said.
“That’s what you do, I’m here to do something. The legacy—I’m here to be a champion, I’m telling you right now—I’m working towards that.
“That’s what I do. I fight and I fight well, I know this. Listen, I’m going to turn things around. I’m going to be a champion again and I need all of you to be by my side as I do that.
“I’m going to make history.”
UFC 309 is headlined by Jon Jones vs Stipe Miocic as they contest for the heavyweight title.
It is likely the winner of Oliveira vs Chandler will face the eventual winner of Makhachev vs Tsarukyan in 2025 for the UFC lightweight title.
If history is anything to go by then Oliveira will beat Chandler and go on to become UFC lightweight champion, just like he did after the birth of his daughter.
