Charles Oliveira ‘bluffed’ about injury in bid to move UFC title fight with Islam Makhachev

Oliveira wanted to fight in his native Brazil in November, rather than in Abu Dhabi in October

Charles Oliveira has admitted that he ‘bluffed’ about having an injury in a bid to change the time and place of his title fight with Islam Makhachev.

Oliveira will challenge Makhachev for the UFC lightweight belt in Abu Dhabi in October, 12 months after the pair clashed for the title in the same venue: the Etihad Arena. In their first fight, Makhachev submitted former champion Oliveira to win the vacant gold, and now the Brazilian will try to avenge that loss to the Russian.

However, it looked at one point like Oliveira might not be fit to compete in October, leading some fans to wonder whether Makhachev would defend his title in Abu Dhabi at all. But now Oliveira has revealed that he was not injured – or, at least, not as badly as he had suggested.

“What changed is that I just learned how to play. Now I’m playing,” the 33-year-old said on The MMA Hour on Monday (7 August).

“What I knew was that the UFC was planning to maybe have a fight in Brazil in November, so I was trying to push it to November.

“I was just playing with them. Obviously it didn’t work, so now I’m fighting in October, but that’s what I was doing: I was bluffing.”

Oliveira bounced back from his loss to Makhachev by knocking out Beneil Dariush this June. “Do Bronx” previously held the lightweight title from May 2021 until May 2022, before being stripped of the gold.

Oliveira was stripped of the title after narrowly missing weight, the day before his scheduled defence against Justin Gaethje. The Brazilian went on to submit Gaethje and set up his first fight with Makhachev.

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