\u201cLokdog\u201d plans to eradicate his opponent.<\/p>\n
Surging Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Bantamweight contender Vinicius Oliveira will headline his first UFC event<\/a> when he takes on Mario Bautista in the main event of UFC Vegas 113<\/a> this weekend (Sat., Feb. 7, 2026) inside the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada.<\/p>\n And if Oliveira has his way, it won\u2019t be a long night.<\/p>\n Speaking with MMAMania.com<\/a> during UFC Vegas 113 media day, the Brazilian contender suggested the matchup was designed with a clear purpose: eliminating Bautista, who has drawn criticism for his grinding<\/a>, low-output style \u2014 something Oliveira believes the promotion is ready to move on from.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the UFC made a good choice, a good matchup because he\u2019s a boring fighter, and I think the UFC wanted to put him out,\u201d Oliveira said. \u201cThey put me here for the chance to put him out.\u201d<\/p>\n Oliveira didn\u2019t stop there, predicting a first-round knockout to cap off the biggest opportunity of his UFC career.<\/p>\n With a victory, \u201cLokdog\u201d would claim Bautista\u2019s No. 9 ranking<\/a> at Bantamweight \u2014 and in Oliveira\u2019s mind, that puts him on a fast track to title contention.<\/p>\n \u201cI see myself by the end of the year fighting for the belt for sure,\u201d Oliveira said. \u201cBut before that, I\u2019m going to fight against a top five. I\u2019m going to put on a great performance for the audience, and then in the middle of the year I\u2019m going to fight against a top five in the rankings.\u201d<\/p>\n Oliveira also hinted at two specific top-five opponents he\u2019d like to face later this year, potentially on the UFC White House card<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s only two guys in the top five that I would be able to fight there. But it doesn\u2019t matter who,\u201d Oliveira added. \u201cI\u2019m going to fight in the middle of the year again, and then this year I\u2019m going to fight for the belt against anyone. It doesn\u2019t matter.\u201d<\/p>\n The 30-year-old has long called for a matchup with Umar Nurmagomedov, even accusing the Russian contender of avoiding him since Oliveira\u2019s incredible UFC debut<\/a>. Whether that fight materializes later this year remains to be seen.<\/p>\n For now, Oliveira\u2019s focus is singular: get past Bautista \u2014 a notoriously tough out \u2014 and do it in emphatic fashion.<\/p>\n For the rest of the UFC Vegas 113 fight card and Paramount+<\/a> lineup click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cLokdog\u201d plans to eradicate his opponent. Surging Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Bantamweight contender Vinicius Oliveira will headline his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454591,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,33601,638,82,139445,702,8729,3194],"class_list":["post-454590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-on-paramount","tag-ufc-news","tag-ufc-previews","tag-videos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}