Charles Oliveira is hoping that an explosive performance against Diego Lopes at UFC 335 will jump him right into a lightweight title shot to start 2027.
Oliveira’s last win over Max Holloway at UFC 326 was anything but explosive — “Do Bronx” was content to take Holloway’s back and ride things out for 25 minutes. That win earned him Holloway’s BMF belt, and a lot of heat from fans saying he betrayed the concept of the belt. He’ll have a chance to redeem himself on December 12th, and he’ll need a good
performance to earn what he really wants: his lightweight title back.
In a new interview with MMA Fighting’s Guilherme Cruz, Oliveira laid out his thoughts on the top of the division and how his bankability could leapfrog him into a title fight, especially if Justin Gaethje ends up retiring instead of defending the belt.
“I think Arman is there to fight for the title,” Oliveira admitted. “However, if we’re going to talk about name value, what do I think? I think I sell a lot more than Arman. So I could move ahead of Arman.”
“There’s this thing with Gaethje, that he could retire. If he retires, there’s no other path to take. After this fight, it would definitely be me and Arman fighting for the title. So, in reality, without a shadow of a doubt, we’re waiting on a guy who needs to decide his next step.”
“A fight between Charles Oliveira and Diego Lopes will certainly be explosive,” Oliveira said. “If I win this fight, I would definitely be next in line, regardless of whether Gaethje comes back or not, because that would be a very big fight that sells really well.”
“I think Justin Gaethje needs to see what the path is, whether he’s going to fight or not, whether he’s going to retire, so we can understand what the next step is.”
Oliveira was extremely respectful to Gaethje but also clearly hopeful that “The Highlight” would retire. Gaethje has said he’d only come back for a super fight, or super fight money. Oliveira argued Gaethje has already tasted the top amount of money he ever will in his career.
“Without a doubt, he is not going to make more money in his next fight than he made at the White House,” Oliveira said. “His next purse is not going to be that amount. It will definitely be a good amount, but not the amount he made at the White House. The White House was something everyone would have wanted to fight at, and certainly, those who were making 100 before were making 500 to fight at that card.”
That’s some flawed logic. By all accounts, the UFC was penny-pinching fighters on the White House card because there was no gate and the event was already ‘costing them $30 million in losses.’ Gaethje wouldn’t have even been on the card if Team Topuria hadn’t refused to fight Islam Makhachev for a White House discount.
But Oliveira is right about one thing: a win over Lopes would put him right in the contender’s circle, and Gaethje retiring would almost certainly give him an opportunity to avenge his split decision loss to Arman Tsarukyan while fighting for his former belt.
