Former UFC Lightweight champion, Charles Oliveira, is set to fight in Brazil for the first time in five years against Rafael Fiziev in the main event of UFC Rio on October 11th. It perhaps seems like a quick turnaround for Oliveira, who just lost via vicious ffirst-roundKO to Ilia Topuria in their title fight back in June. By the time this one rolls around, there will have only been 105 days between the two fights.
Oliveira has always been game, and perhaps the allure of once again fighting in his home country has meant that he is willing to step back into the octagon so soon after a big knockout. Oliveira is one of the UFC’s biggest stars right now, and is the perfect name to headline a card in Brazil.
Still, perhaps it is worth noting that fighters in the past have made the mistake of jumping back into the octagon too soon after a knockout loss with the most famous example being Alexander Volkanovski, who lost via first round KO to Islam Makhachev at lightweight before defending his featherweight belt against Ilia Topuria less than four months later, where he would once again be knocked out.
Rafael Fiziev is perhaps one of the most dangerous lightweights that Oliveira could have returned to. Fiziev hasgonet 1-3 in his last four, but it should be considered that two of those losses were in very close fights to Justin Gaethjie and the loss against Mateusz Gamrot ended in a rather unfortunate leg injury which saw him out of action for over a year. Fiziev is extremely dangerous on the feet, with KO wins over the likes of Renato Moicano, Brad Riddell and Rafael dos Anjos. He is extremely fast and has power, displaying some world-class striking ability during his time in the UFC.
For Charles Oliveira, it will be a question of how much he has recovered since the fight against Topuria. If he can handle the power coming back from Fiziev, it will give him a chance to use his very diverse striking and his elite BJJ. His more well-rounded MMA game is perhaps where the Brazilian has the advantage in this fight, and if he can keep the fight on the ground, it would be hard to imagine a scenario where he doesn’t win this fight.
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