an esophagus tear<\/a> during the fight. Diego Lima, who wasn\u2019t his head coach at the time but already a friend, was in Canada that week to accompany Felipe Arantes on the same card. He became Oliveira\u2019s head coach some time later, and said what happened to \u201cdo Bronx\u201d that night still remains a mystery.<\/p>\n\u201cIt was all very strange,\u201d Lima told MMA Fighting. \u201cReally crazy how it happened. So much so that even today nobody knows what actually happened. The hospital wouldn\u2019t let him leave or return to Brazil because they couldn\u2019t detect exactly what the problem was, he still had that paralysis. It was something very serious that no one ever figured out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lima said \u201cit became an issue left in the past\u201d but likely won\u2019t ever have an answer as of what really went on. So many years later now, Oliveira and Holloway prepare to meet a second time in the main event of UFC 326 on March 7 in Las Vegas, battling for the BMF strap.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you watch the fight, he didn\u2019t get hit, nothing happened,\u201d Lima said. \u201cHe backs up, feels something and leans against the fence. It\u2019s not like, \u2018Man, he\u2019s getting beat up in this fight.\u2019 Nothing like that. The fight hadn\u2019t even really developed yet. It was just starting to find its rhythm.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was very scary precisely because of that,\u201d he added. \u201cIf we know what it is, we treat it. But since no one knew exactly what it was, there was nothing to treat. He stayed hospitalized, and the hospital didn\u2019t want to release him at all because he wasn\u2019t improving. So once again it was God in Charles\u2019s life, just like since his birth and all the health problems he\u2019s had. And he didn\u2019t just get through it, he went on to achieve everything he has achieved.\u201d<\/p>\n
Oliveira was released from the hospital two days after the fight and returned to Brazil, and a lot has changed since. Holloway went on to win two more and then earn a shot at the interim 145-pound belt, beating Anthony Pettis before unifying championships against Jose Aldo. Years in the future, the Hawaiian star beat Justin Gaethje and Dustin Poirier with the BMF title on the line.<\/p>\n
Oliveira struggled as a featherweight, bouncing between and losses until he\u2019s finally moved up to lightweight and rose to the top to become UFC champion with championship victories over Michael Chandler, Dustin Poirier and Justin Gaethje. In his most recent bout, \u201cdo Bronx\u201d dominated and submitted Mateusz Gamrot in Rio de Janeiro to insert his name back in the conversation for a shot at the 155-pound gold.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth of them have evolved tremendously,\u201d Lima said of his prot\u00e9g\u00e9 and Holloway. \u201cThat\u2019s why they\u2019re both giants. If we look at their careers from 10 years ago, many others fell by the wayside, and both of them stayed at the top. The BMF belt is around Holloway\u2019s waist and Charles is going to fight for it. Charles was champion and dominated the division like a year ago. That means they are the two fighters who have evolved the most in the division. If you look at the whole division, who else has been around as long as they have, with the achievements they have? Maybe nobody. Just the two of them. That proves they really are giants.\u201d<\/p>\n
Oliveira again chose to stay in Sao Paulo for the duration of the camp instead of traveling 120 miles every day between the capital and Guaruj\u00e1. He has done that in his past camp for Gamrot \u2014 and original UFC Rio opponent Rafael Fiziev \u2014, and Lima said it gave them a chance to evolve immensely.<\/p>\n
\u201cCharles is an MMA fighter,\u201d Lima said. \u201cI know a lot of people say, \u2018He should just go in and shoot for the legs,\u2019 but that\u2019s not how the game works. Charles will be ready for wherever the fight develops. He\u2019s going in to fight MMA. The fight starts on the feet, and Charles is extremely aggressive. Then people say, \u2018Yeah, but this might happen, that might happen.\u2019 The world lives on speculation.<\/p>\n
\u201cCharles is a giant precisely because of how he fights. He\u2019s a guy who truly excites people. There\u2019s no denying it. His fights are thrilling from beginning to end. I know that for the fan watching, that emotion is huge. Imagine for me, who can say I\u2019m his fan, his personal friend, right there beside him. It\u2019s an emotion like no other. But we definitely want to make the smartest fight possible, knowing it\u2019s an MMA fight, and we believe in Charles\u2019s victory in every area where the fight goes. I believe in Charles winning in on the feet, against the fence, and on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n
Holloway is a well-rounded veteran \u2014 \u201cif one of his skills were terrible he wouldn\u2019t be where he is\u201d \u2014, and Lima expects them to give fans an exciting battle March 7 at the T-Mobile Arena.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe it will be an extremely technical fight and extremely aggressive because they are two fighters who give themselves completely inside the octagon,\u201d Lima said. \u201cThey both go for the victory, and that\u2019s extremely important. Why? Because some fighters fight not to lose. These two don\u2019t. They fight to win. I think it has everything to be, even this early in the year, one of the best fights of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n
And if Holloway points down to the ground inviting Oliveira for a wild exchange in the final 10 seconds of the bout, Lima said his prot\u00e9g\u00e9 will welcome violence.<\/p>\n
The bigger question is: will the fight last that long?<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think we need to wait until 24 minutes and 50 seconds for that to happen,\u201d Lima said. \u201cThat\u2019s what Holloway has been doing. [Ilia] Topuria himself did it early, and Holloway didn\u2019t go for it. But I don\u2019t believe the fight lasts 25 minutes. Honestly, I really don\u2019t, because they are fighters who finish fights. If you asked me the probability of this fight going to a decision, I\u2019d say 10 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BMF champion Max Holloway and former UFC lightweight king Charles Oliveira will meet again inside the octagon more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,85,787,1396],"class_list":["post-479702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}