UFC star Charles Oliveira reveals hardest hitting foe he’s faced: ‘When I hit him, he folded’
Former undisputed lightweight champion, Charles Oliveira appears to still retain some ill-will toward ex-foe, Justin Gaethje — labelling the veteran the hardest hitting opponent he’s ever faced in the Octagon — but reminding fans at a UFC 312 Q&A that he still finished the former when they met.
Oliviera, a former undisputed lightweight champion and the current number two ranked divisional contender, most recently co-headlined UFC 309 back in November at Madison Square Garden, taking on two-fight rival, Michael Chandler over the course of five rounds.
And turning in his second career win over the Missouri veteran, Oliveira landed a unanimous decision win over the former Bellator MMA three-time lightweight kingpin — returning to the winner’s enclosure to boot.
Charles Oliveira puts boot in on former-foe, Justin Gaethje
Appearing on stage in Australia this week ahead of UFC 312 this weekend in Sydney, Oliveira was asked who is the hardest hitting force he ever faced in the Octagon — revealing former interim lightweight champion, Gaethje shook him in the most — before echoing calls for a BMF title fight return during International Fight Week.
“It’s very hard to answer, but [I’ve fought] Dustin Poirier, Justin Gaethje, Michael Chandler,” Charles Oliveira told fans during a UFC 312 Q&A session. “When I fought Justin Gaethje, they said, ‘He’s the guy who hits the hardest’.
“When I hit him, he folded. So, I’ll tell you what — the guy who hits the hardest is me,” Charles Oliveira explained. I’m the problem of this division; I’m going for the BMF belt as well. I’m the one to do it.”
Involved in a pre-fight fiasco ahead of his title fight with Gaethje back in 2021, Oliveira was stripped of his lightweight crown following a weigh-in miscue, and recently claims he felt “disrespected” by the promotion during the infamous issue ahead of his return in Arizona.
“What the UFC did was straight-up disrespectful;” Charles Oliveira explained. I always check my weight on Thursday, the night before. So, I already had the confidence… But I was already hearing rumors around… That the scale was calibrated. I was confident when I came back to the hotel, and I was 0.8lbs over… It felt like an awkward situation, and I felt disrespected because they took the weigh-in the night before when they were messing with the scale.”
“They should let me know; I felt disrespected by them not doing it,” Charles Oliveira said. “So, when they said that I had to lose that [weight], I came back to the hotel room and started doing what I needed to do to get some sweat off.”
