Charles Oliveira is hoping he’ll have more opportunities to fight in front of his home country of Brazil.
Oliveira stepped up big time to make UFC Rio a special event, agreeing to fight just a few short months after getting brutally knocked out by Ilia Topuria. And when his opponent changed on weeks notice from Rafael Fiziez to Mateusz Gamrot, he stayed focused and submitted his new foe in the second round (watch the highlights here).
Now “Do Bronxs” is already asking for another fight in Brazil — as big of one as possible.
“In a stadium,” he suggested at the UFC Rio post-fight press conference. “You can put me as the main event, I’m totally sure we can fill it. I’m the biggest name in the UFC today in Brazil.”
He also suggested that Alex Pereira get in on the hypothetical Brazilian stadium show.
“Of course, there’s other great names,” Oliveira said. “Can you imagine doing a card with Charles Oliveira and Poatan? That’d be huge, so if you wanna make history. I think that Brazilian people deserve it. We deserve it, not a small Fight Night but a huge event.”
The UFC has brought big pay-per-view events to Brazil just twice in five years, so Oliveira has a point that it’s due for more big events. But a stadium? Even after his experience throwing Canelo vs. Crawford, UFC CEO Dana White is still extremely stadium-adverse.
A big premium card is more likely, but it seems like Charles Oliveira and Alex Pereira both have bigger possibilities to think of right now. “Do Bronxs” has a chance to fight Max Holloway for the BMF belt, and Alex Pereira is positioning himself for a White House superfight against Jon Jones.