Charles Oliveira has his heart set on fighting for a title next, whether that’s winning back the lightweight belt, vying for the symbolic ‘BMF’ strap, or even an interim title.
“For me, what makes sense is to fight for the title,” Oliveira told Sherdog. “I talked a lot about BMF because Islam [Makhachev] said that he just wants to return in October, and October is too much time [out of the cage]. I want to fight [during International Fight Week in June].
“But later, Islam said he wanted to fight [then as well], so I took the focus from the BMF belt, against [Max] Holloway and returned my focus to the lightweight belt.”
There’s also been talk of Oliveira welcoming Ilia Topuria to the division after he vacated the featherweight title to attempt to be crowned lightweight champion, but ‘Do Bronx’ suggests that he’d only be willing to do that if there was an interim belt on the line.
“If it’s for a belt, I’m in, it doesn’t matter who is on the other side. What does not make sense for me is to do one more fight to fight for the belt next,” Oliveira stated.
And with that in mind, Oliveira confirmed that as far as he’s concerned this isn’t the right time to line up a fight with Paddy Pimblett, who called him out after his TKO victory against Michael Chandler at the weekend.
“Paddy is a tough kid,” Oliveira acknowledged. “He proved how he is evolving against Chandler. I understand his desire, but as I said, my focus is the belt. When I was reaching top 10, I also wanted to face the top five. That’s part of the game. Pimblett would be a great fight, but not now.”
