Charles Oliveira reveals knee injury ahead of UFC 309 win over Michael Chandler: ‘I spent 20 days without training’

Former interim lightweight champion, Charles Oliveira has revealed he was unable to train for almost 20 days ahead of his return over the weekend at UFC 309, suffering a ligament injury in his knee in the weeks before his title eliminator rematch with Michael Chandler.

Oliveira, the current number two ranked lightweight contender, returned to the winner’s enclosure at UFC 309 over the course of the weekend at Madison Square Garden, earning a hard-fought unanimous decision (49-46, 49-46, 49-45) victory against former title challenger, Michael Chandler.

Showing off his vast striking expertise against the former Bellator MMA star, Oliveira would pin Chandler to the Octagon fence on numerous occasions throughout their five round co-headliner at The Garden, as well as threatening with a volley of submission chokes after taking Chandler to the canvas with a variety of takedowns.

Charles Oliveira reveals knee injury suffered before UFC 309

And in the hours following the pairing, Sao Paulo native, Oliveira claimed that while he did not want to make excuses following his win over Chandler, he suffered a ligament injury in his knee just weeks out from the pairing, leaving him unable to train for the matchup.

“I didn’t want to talk about it because if we lose it’s taken as an excuse,” Charles Oliveira told UFC Fight Pass Brazil.“If we win, we value it. But I had a knee injury. I tore or burst two ligaments. I was supposed to be out of action for four to six weeks. But I didn’t want to pull out of this fight at all because I knew that if I won I could fight for the title again.”

“I had to do physiotherapy every day, try to train with the pain, but I spent practically 15 to 20 days without training properly,” Charles Oliveira continued. “I just really focused on weight training, which was the only thing I could do. But god blessed me enormously and everything worked out.”

Laying out his immediate plans following his UFC 309 victory, Brazilian fan-favorite, Oliveira teased a lightweight title fight between Islam Makhachev and Arman Tsarukyan as soon as January in the headliner of UFC 311, claiming he would be front row and center awaiting a rematch with the winner.