Islam Makhachev tapped out Charles Oliveira to kick off his UFC lightweight reign in 2022, and \u201cdo Bronx\u2019s\u201d teammate Ian Machado Garry will enter the octagon on Aug. 15 in Philadelphia to try to end his unbeaten streak and capture the welterweight title at UFC 330.<\/p>\n
Garry earned a shot at the 170-pound belt after beating former champion Belal Muhammad in November 2025, and Oliveira said that he\u2019s been training for Makhachev since then.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe knew he was next in line for the title,\u201d Oliveira told MMA Fighting. \u201cAnd he\u2019s been completely focused on this matchup with Makhachev ever since.\u201d<\/p>\n
Makhachev has the chance to break the record for longest winning streak in UFC history at UFC 331, surpassing Anderson Silva with 17 in a row, and Garry can derail that. The Russian talent beat all-time greats in Alexander Volkanovski, Dustin Poirier, and Oliveira at 155 pounds before reaching the welterweight throne with a win over Jack Della Maddalena a week before Garry beat Muhammad, and Oliveira sees the key for his victory in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
\u201cIan truly has a very good chance of beating Makhachev,\u201d Oliveira said. \u201cI\u2019m not saying that because he\u2019s my friend or because he\u2019s part of our team, but because of what we\u2019ve seen and how he\u2019s been training.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know there\u2019s an incredibly tough guy on the other side, someone who deserves all the respect in the world. He\u2019s humble when promoting a fight, but he\u2019s extremely difficult to deal with inside the cage. He\u2019s outstanding, a really tough fighter. But honestly, in my opinion, Ian has a great chance of winning, because he\u2019s such a strategic fighter and never abandons the game plan.\u201d<\/p>\n
Oliveira and his Chute Boxe coaches in Sao Paulo built a camp for Makhachev in the past, and the UFC star believes that all that knowledge has come to hand when assisting Garry in his preparation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether you win or lose, once you\u2019ve shared the cage with someone, you come away with certain insights,\u201d Oliveira said. \u201cAnd especially by watching fights. Ian is a very strategic guy, he studies a lot. Ian brings a lot to the table. We also contribute a lot, and the team is constantly talking, \u2018What do you think about this, about that?\u2019 Honestly, Ian is very well prepared.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s really happy to have this opportunity to fight for the title. And I think the most important thing is that, ever since he won his last fight, Ian already knew he was next. He already knew who his opponent was going to be. So Ian didn\u2019t just start this training camp now, he\u2019s been in camp and focused on this fight for a long time already. Ian keeps getting better every day. He\u2019s happier. He understands the opportunity in front of him. He knows the weapons he has, and he knows the quality of his jiu-jitsu.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe difference with Ian is his intelligence,\u201d he continued. \u201cHe never strays from the strategy. Whatever the team plans together with him for the fight, he\u2019ll follow it from start to finish. That\u2019s what sets Ian apart. Once he commits the game plan to his mind, he\u2019ll stick with it all the way through. He won\u2019t change it. That\u2019s the difference Ian brings into the game, into the cage. That\u2019s what makes us happy, because he never drifts away from the plan or loses focus. He gives himself to it 100%. He sticks to the strategy no matter what\u2019s happening, so I think it\u2019s going to be a great fight.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Islam Makhachev tapped out Charles Oliveira to kick off his UFC lightweight reign in 2022, and \u201cdo Bronx\u2019s\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":842043,"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-842042","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\/842042","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=842042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/842043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=842042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=842042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=842042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}