Charles Oliveira is the new UFC lightweight champion but he opened as the underdog to both Dustin Poirier and Conor McGregor.
In the main event of UFC 262, Oliveira scored a second-round TKO win over Michael Chandler to win the vacant title. It was a comeback win for the Brazilian, and after he became the champ, it was clear his first title defense would come against the winner of Poirier-McGregor 3 on July 10.
Although Oliveira is the champ, many fans and Poirier himself have called “The Diamond” the uncrowned champ. The oddsmakers seem to agree with that as he opened as a -180 favorite while McGregor was a -165 favorite. For “Do Bronx” he says he likes being the underdog.
“No, that makes me happy. I like being the underdog. I go there and prove it. Brother, I’ve made history ever since I got in the UFC. Every time people said I couldn’t do something, I went there and proved them wrong,” Oliveira said to MMAFighting. “When they gave me someone and said they would knock me out, I proved them wrong. Every time they said someone would knock me out, they ended up beat up on the feet and shooting for takedowns. I show my firepower, my knockout power. I’ll tell you this, being the underdog or “the man of the hour” makes no difference to me. What matters is what you can do in there. Every time you get in there is 50-50 and whoever has the best strategy and is better prepared will win.”
Charles Oliveira is riding a nine-fight winning streak and prior to the win over Chandler, he had back-to-back wins over Tony Ferguson and Kevin Lee. The run to the title was also a surprise as entering 2020 he wasn’t even in the top-10. But, if he can beat Poirier or McGregor his star would only grow.
Do you think Charles Oliveira will beat either Dustin Poirier or Conor McGregor?
