When Khabib Nurmagomedov left the UFC, the lightweight division was looking for a fighter to pick up where he left off – a dominant fighter who could do what Khabib Nurmagomedov had done. Islam Makhachev stepped on the scene and picked up the mantle after his mentor and training partner. Makhachev’s MMA record stands at 24-1-0, with his only loss coming at the hands of Adriano Martins. While he may not be unbeaten like Khabib ‘The Eagle’ Nurmagomedov, his record is still pretty impressive.

Islam Makhachev and Charles Oliveira fought for the first time back in 2022, at UFC 280. Oliveira put up a great fight but Makhachev took the win, eventually. Now, 1 year later, Oliveira has another chance to even the odds as he is gearing up to fight the menacing lightweight champ Islam Makhachev, once again, at UFC 294, in Abu Dhabi but it seems ‘The Eagle’s cousin, Usman Nurmagomedov isn’t convinced that Oliveira can make any difference in the outcome of the fight.

Usman Nurmagomedov dismisses Charles Oliveira’s UFC 294 chances

Usman Nurmagomedov is a decorated fighter like his legendary cousin. He is the lightweight champion in Bellator MMA and is undefeated as well. He recently interviewed for ESPN MMA where the interviewer asked him what he thought of the Islam Makhachev vs. Charles Oliveira rematch. To no one’s surprise, Nurmagomedov spoke highly of Makhachev and let his decision know.

“I think it’s gonna be the same… same… same thing. You know, like, what… what – what it was like – yeah, of course, Charles Oliveira maybe, gonna be fix some mistakes… his mistakes, and… this is fight, you know? Like, something can happen in fight, but… but I know Islam – Islam training very hard. He’s… he’s… he’s very smart. Even like… he can – he can wrestle, striking, and grapple too – grappling too, and you know…“, replied Nurmagomedov, praising Makhachev’s abilities and his training process.

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Then, he concluded saying, “I dont think like Charles Oliveira can like, make – he give him like like some hard situation.“. it seems Nurmagomedov is confident that Makhachev will prevail over Oliveira a second time. Meanwhile, Oliveira has received another call out from a fellow lightweight who predicted a grim UFC 294 fate for him.

Charles Oliveira gets called out by another lightweight fighter

It seems that Charles Oliveira has already been called out ahead of his major fight against Islam Makhachev at UFC 294. Lightweight fighter Mateusz Gamrot didn’t think twice before calling out the Brazilian UFC fighter after he triumphed over Rafael Fiziev at UFC Vegas 79. However, there is more.

It seems even Gamrot is in agreement with what Usman Nurmagomedov has to say. In the post-fight press conference, Gamrot said that he predicts the same fate for Oliveira at UFC 294, as the fate he had been met with at UFC 280 – a loss to Islam Makhachev. However, he said that he wants to fight Oliveira next, ‘when’ he loses to Makhachev again. He said he is going to be ready for him next year, whenever he wants to fight him next.

Will Charles Oliveira prove everyone wrong and regain the lightweight title? Or will he actually be met with the same fate – a loss to Islam Makhachev (again)?

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