Coach of Charles Oliveira reaffirms desire of fighting Conor McGregor next
Diego Lima, the coach of Charles Oliveira at Chute Boxe, has reaffirmed his desire for “Do Bronx” to fight UFC superstar Conor McGregor next.
Oliveira recently defeated Justin Gaethje at UFC 274 by submission, but the fight was a non-title bout after he controversially missed weight by half a pound in Arizona. Although most fans and media believe that the next test for Oliveira should be a fight against rising star Islam Makhachev, “Do Bronx” himself has made it clear that he wants to fight McGregor next in a money fight. Even though McGregor is coming off of back-to-back TKO losses to Dustin Poirier and he hasn’t fought since last July when he broke his leg against Poirier in their trilogy, Oliveira still wants to fight McGregor next.
Speaking to AG Fight, Oliveira’s coach Lima explained why his team is hoping to battle McGregor.
“Me and Charles really want McGregor. But McGregor is coming off a loss, I agree, but he made a history there. He’s the man, he’s done incredible things, he has incredible records, he’s talked and done, he’s choking on the Brazilians and it would be a fight with incredible repercussions. Can you imagine getting McGregor in Brazil? It would be the perfect dream. But it’s not just up to us. We respect what the UFC says, but we are trying to get our vision across, what we want,” Lima said.
As for Makhachev, Lima doesn’t think he should get a title shot since he doesn’t have a top-five win, and he criticized former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov for pushing this fight.
“Makhachev never got a top 5, so why fight him now? Khabib, who has never been one to trash talk, is doing a lot. If he believes so much in his ‘cousin’, why not put his cousin on the straight? It’s ugly to see this from Khabib. He’s always done it with his fists and not with his mouth and now that he’s retired he’s trying to get his ‘cousin’ to get places through his mouth. He even belittles his ‘cousin.’ It seems that his ‘cousin’ doesn’t have enough merit, he doesn’t want him to get a top 5 and talks to try to make it happen. If Khabib is talking so much about Charles after he retired, he puts his on the straight. I’m sure Charles will make it happen. Why doesn’t he say that if Charles hits his ‘cousin’ he’ll fight? So he doesn’t believe it all that much,” Lima said.
Do you want to see Charles Oliveira fight Conor McGregor next?
