Charles Oliveira will no longer be fighting Beneil Dariush at UFC On ESPN 16 on October 4th after pulling out of the event for personal reasons.
Oliveira hasn’t explained what those reasons are, but source close to Oliveira told mmafighting.com that they expect the Brazilian star to be ready to compete again in November or December.
It’s unfortunate the fight has fallen through as it was shaping up to be a very intriguing clash of in-form contenders.
Oliveira has been on an impressive run in the division for the last couple of years, compiling a seven-fight winning streak, including five submission stoppages and two via strikes, against the likes of Kevin Lee, Jim Miller, Nik Lentz and Clay Guida.
Meanwhile, Dariush is also riding a wave of momentum, having put together a five-fight unbeaten stretch that includes two submission victories and most recently two KO stoppages against Drakkar Klose and Scott Holtzman.
As such, Oliveira was ranked No.6 in the division heading into the fight, while Dariush had been at No.11.
So far it’s not clear whether the UFC plans to find a replacement opponent to keep Dariush on the line-up, but thankfully for the promotion they do have a strong line-up planned for the UFC On ESPN 16 show even without this fight as it also features the likes of Thiago Santos vs. Glover Teixeira, Holly Holm vs. Irene Aldana, Carlos Condit vs. Court McGee and Germaine de Randamie vs Julianna Pena.
