Charles Oliveira is eagerly anticipating a date for his rematch with Islam Makhachev, but claimed to be surprise at new reports of a January clash at UFC 297.
Oliveira (34-9 MMA, 22-9 UFC) was forced to withdraw from his anticipated second encounter with lightweight champ Makhachev (25-1 MMA, 14-1 UFC) at UFC 294 this past month. He sustained a cut over his eye in one of his final departure training sessions, causing him to pull out and be replaced by Alexander Volkanovski, who was knocked out in the first round.
UFC CEO Dana White expressed interest in booking Oliveira vs. Makhachev 2 next at 155 pounds, but it would depend on how quickly Oliveira’s cut healed. According to the Brazilian, he is nearing a return to full contact training.
“It was quite a deep cut,” Oliveira said on Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 231 post-event show in Sao Paulo. “I don’t have any planned, scheduled fights at the moment. We get to take our time to get a good recovery, so I might go back into training in about a week or so.”
MMA reporter Ariel Helwani reported Saturday that the promotion is working on booking the rematch at UFC 297 on Jan. 20, which is expected to take place in Toronto. Oliveira claims he was unaware of that, and has yet to be contacted with any offers.
“We just heard this from the locker room,” Oliveira said. “People were asking us on the messages about getting it. This is the first time we heard about it. That’s the timeline, January maybe. So who knows?”
Oliveira suffered a second-round submission loss to Makhachev in their vacant title encounter at UFC 280 in October 2022. “Do Bronx” rebounded from that defeat with a second-round TKO of Beneil Dariush at UFC 289 in June, and will look to avenge his loss and regain the strap whenever the details become official.
“You’ll see the Charles you always see, always going forward, always going for the submission, for the knockout, going for the win,” Oliveira said. “I want to be champion. I want to be the next champion. That’s what I want.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 297.
