“A wounded lion is a more dangerous animal, and I’m going to go back and hunt again,” Charles Oliveira used these words of consolation after Islam Makhachev snatched his dreams of recapturing the lightweight championship belt at UFC 280. Since then, ‘Du Bronx’ has been on a mission to reclaim his lost glory, but the setbacks never left his court. Now, with Ilia Topuria emerging as a prime contender, Oliveira is only focused on challenging the champion next. 

The lightweight division is generating a lot of curiosity among the fans right now. We have a dominant champion that everybody wants to get their hands on and the contender shuffle is getting more complex each day. However, the former lightweight champion believes he aces all of them and doesn’t want to settle for a fight other than challenging the champion. ‘Du Bronx’ believes he’s the number one contender and he’s just waiting for a call.

Oliveira, in an interview with Chael Sonnen, said via translator, “I have already passed all these on the UFC. [There are] a lot of rumors all over around, but at the end of the day, they’re gonna decide what they want to do right? The right thing to do is Oliveira vs Islam Makhachev because I’m number one. I’m just waiting for the call, just let me know the date and the time and I’ll be ready.”

Islam Makhachev was scheduled to defend his belt against Charles Oliveira at UFC 294 in Abu Dhabi. However, ‘Du Bronx’ sustained a nasty cut during his preparation for the fight which ultimately became the reason for an unfortunate withdrawal and was abruptly replaced by Alexander Volkanovski on short notice. From then on, the Brazilian is in pursuit to face the champion on a deciding match. 

Oliveira had the opportunity to step into the octagon against the current #1 lightweight, Arman Tsarukyan, in a title eliminator bout at UFC 300. Unfortunately, he fell short in that fight and then went on to suffer a ligament and knee injury. He made his comeback against Michael Chandler at UFC 309. While it’s tough to believe that the UFC will grant ‘Du Bronx’ another title shot anytime soon without a winning streak, he maintains that the promotion intends to keep its promises to him

Ilia Topuria is confident that the UFC will give him a title shot over Charles Oliveira

As Charles Oliveira is looking for his opportunity, it’s a more believable possibility that Ilia Topuria might steal the position of the challenger for Islam Makhachev’s belt. Despite all the skepticism around this super-fight coming to fruition, the UFC is likely to push for this highly anticipated fight to take place soon. 

Ilia Topuria had to sacrifice his hard-earned featherweight championship in order to ascend to the lightweight division and he believes the promotion is definitely going to keep their promise and reward him with a fight against Islam Makhachev. The newly nicknamed ‘La Leyenda’ during an event interview in Spain, which was posted by Marca Journalist Irati Prat on ‘X’, said, “The UFC promised me I’d fight for the belt. That’s why I vacated it. And they’ve always kept their promise.”

So where does this leave the former Brazilian champion? Well, the two have been interacting with one another, and the interactions have been far from cordial, to say the least. The fact that ‘El Leyenda’ is in the running for the title is clearly bothering Oliveira, and the Brazilian has been vocal about it. Oliveira is clear that he wants to fight for the title next, but doesn’t mind if Topuria fights Makhachev. Regardless of whether it’s the Georgian or the Dagestani, ‘Do Bronx’ wants to fight for the title.

What do you think? Who is going to fight Islam Makhachev next? Charles Oliveira or Ilia Topuria? Comment your thoughts below!