Former lightweight king Charles Oliveira faces one of his stiffest tests yet when he fights Armenian-Russian phenom Arman Tsarukyan at UFC 300 on April 13.
The lightweight fight is heavily anticipated, garnering the attention of fans worldwide who consider each fighter to be dangerous in all facets of MMA. However, Tsarukyan doesn't believe this to be the case with his Brazilian rival.
Speaking to Red Corner MMA, Tsarukyan labelled Oliveira as "nothing special":
"Charles is good at one thing - taking his opponent’s back and choking him out from that position. But overall he’s nothing special. Yes, he has some tricks when pulling guard, but nothing extraordinary."
Tsarukyan recently entered the lightweight top-five by defeating Beneil Dariush in late-2023. He'll be competing for Oliveira's #1 spot at UFC 300, spelling some hope for a long-stagnant 155 lb division.
"For the first time in a long time, it feels like the division is moving in a direction where all those guys who have essentially been protectors of the top five are saying, 'We will fight this next generation of lightweight,'" Former champion-turned-pundit Daniel Cormier explained his excitement for the fight in an interview with ESPN.
"Because for a while, those guys would never even fight them. You’d offer Dustin an Arman Tsarukyan, he’d be like, ‘What? Are you crazy? Why?’ Or Charles - Now those guys are saying, ‘OK, we’ll fight these guys.’ Let’s see what happens.”
Tsarukyan and Oliveira vie for a title fight rematch with Islam Makhachev, potentially in the last quarter of 2024.
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