Former UFC lightweight champion, Charles Oliveira, will headline the upcoming UFC Rio MMA event on Sat. night (Oct. 11) at Farmasi Arena in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, despite his initial hesitancy. The always-dangerous “Do Bronx” holds multiple UFC records including most submissions (16), most finishes (20), and most post-fight performance bonuses (20).
UFC Rio opponent, Mateusz Gamrot, is going to “take him down” and “scramble with him” anyway.
“I am a grappler, I want to take down everybody in my fight, so this is going to be the same with Charles,” Gamrot told MMA Fighting ahead of this weekend’s five-round main event on ESPN+ (order it here). “We step in the cage, but I want to take him down and want to scramble with him in the ground. My previous opponent always tried to stand up from the ground, like ground was fire for my previous opponent, so I never can show my really performance in the ground.”
“Right now I think Charles wants to fight me on the ground, in the guard, he wants to try to submit me, maybe choke me, maybe guillotine, maybe take the back,” Gamrot continued. “He’s great from this position. I think this time I show my epic performance from the ground, like versus [Arman] Tsarukyan. This was non-stop action, non-stop scramble because Tsarukyan was a wrestler as well and he don’t scare my wrestling. I expect the same against Charles. This is gonna be epic fight in the ground.”
Or another stripe on Oliveira’s belt.
To see who else is fighting at UFC Rio this weekend in Brazil click here.