Former UFC lightweight champion Charles Oliveira’s coach Diego Lima has stated that if his fighter beats Arman Tsarukyan at UFC 300 then he’d rather fight Conor McGregor than get another title shot against current champion Islam Makhachev.
“It would be great to fight McGregor,” Lima told mmafighting.com. “McGregor has made history.
“Professionally speaking, [fighting him] would be incredible. If we had the opportunity to fight McGregor at welterweight after this fight, we would fight McGregor. But how about the belt? OK, we’ll fight the belt after that, God willing. But we know that with McGregor, the creature has become bigger than the creator. We know that if the opportunity came, McGregor already considered this fight. If we really had this opportunity, that’s the one we want.”
According to Lima, McGregor had actually been in contact with Oliveira privately in the past about potentially fighting him when he returned to action, but with ‘The Notorious’ still sidelined with his broken leg at the time the Brazilian moved on to other opportunities instead.
However, now the hope is that McGregor isn’t far from finally returning to action and so not only is Oliveira and his manager apparently open to the idea of facing him, they feel he deserves the opportunity more than Michael Chandler.
“With all due respect to Chandler, I’m not taking anything away from him, but what is his history in the UFC?” Lima said. “How many fights did he do in the UFC?” Lima said. “Of course, he sells, he has a name, I agree with that, but … [Justin] Gaethje, [Dustin] Poirier, Charles, Makhachev, they all have done more than Chandler in the UFC. Way more. So I don’t know if this fight will sell.
“Chandler kept waiting for McGregor and people forgot about Chandler. Respectfully, nobody knows he exists. Arman is on a roll, Gaethje too, Poirier did this fight. F***, look at Poirier’s fight. Poirier just had an incredible fight. I’m a fan of his. Chandler, poor guy, is sitting and waiting. He never won three in a row [in the UFC], never came close — OK, he fought for it, but never won the belt. He’s missing.
“Meanwhile, people are working. Gaethje is putting on wars, Poirier is putting on wars, Charles is putting on wars, Arman is putting on wars, Makhachev is putting on wars. Unfortunately, it makes this Chandler vs. McGregor fight sell less and less because it will be all about McGregor and not a bit about Chandler. … Charles sells more than Chandler. If Charles fights McGregor now, f***, in my opinion, that would stop the fight world. It would stop it.”
