Mateusz
Gamrot
believes
Charles
Oliveira is avoiding a showdown with him.
“Gamer” Gamrot (24-2) has repeatedly called out former titleholder
Oliveira (34-10), most recently when “do Bronx”
revealed that he’s eyeing a return in July or August. The
Brazilian mentioned his unwillingness to fight down the rankings at
this stage in his career, dismissing a potential pairing with
Gamrot. Instead, he offered to be the backup for
Conor
McGregor vs.
Michael
Chandler at
UFC 303 on June 29 and later
expressed interest in a welterweight matchup against
Colby
Covington.
Not entirely thrilled, Gamrot took a shot at the former lightweight
champ for targeting Covington, who has gone 2-3 in his last five
Octagon appearances. “Gamer” wrote on
X (formerly known as Twitter):
“I asked to fight Oliveira, but he called out Colby instead. Guy
who only fights once a year and is 2-3 since 2019. We thought you
were better than that, [
Charles
Oliveira]. You know I’ll give you fire on the ground… but maybe
that’s why you’d rather fight Colby,” Gamrot stated.
Oliveira is coming off a razor-thin split decision loss in a title
eliminator against
Arman
Tsarukyan at
UFC
300 in April. The Brazilian had earned the title eliminator
spot with a first-round knockout win over
Beneil
Dariush, who in turn beat Gamrot via decision in 2022. Before
losing two of three, the Chute Boxe Diego Lima star had strung
together a massive win streak of 11 straight, finishing the likes
of
Dustin
Poirier,
Justin
Gaethje and
Michael
Chandler along the way.
Following a split decision loss against
Guram
Kutateladze in his
Ultimate Fighting Championship debut in 2020, Gamrot strung
four wins together into his own unsuccessful meeting with Dariush.
The Polish fighter has since bounced back with a three-fight
winning streak with a unanimous decision win over
Rafael dos
Anjos in his last outing at
UFC
299 in March.