Charles Oliveira has signalled his interest in fighting Max Holloway for the symbolic BMF belt next, and it seems ‘Blessed’ is on-board with the idea.
Former lightweight champion Oliveira made the suggestion after noting that it might be an extended period of time before current 155lb champ Islam Makhachev is ready to defend his belt again.
“We’ll have to see when [Islam] will want to come back,” Oliveira had told UFC Brazil. ” If he only wants to fight in October, I definitely want to fight before that, so why not challenge Max Holloway for the BMF belt? We met before, but I suffered an injury right in the beginning, so there wasn’t an actual fight. I think we deserve to make this fight happen.”
Holloway has since given a brief response that suggests he’s not only interested in the fight, but also has a potential date in mind for it.
“International fight week?” Holloway wrote, referencing the annual UFC week of festivities that typically takes place in June in Las Vegas and culminates with a major pay-per-view event.
There’s absolutely no doubt that Oliveira would more-than-qualify as a participant in a ‘BMF’ title fight given his stellar list of UFC accolades, that includes not only having been a former lightweight champion, but also holding the record for the most finishes, most submissions and most bonuses in UFC history.
As for Holloway, he was another clear-and-obvious choice when he was granted his BMF title opportunity against Justin Gaethje at UFC 300 last year, and he lived up to that with a last second KO finish to win the belt.
However, Holloway has since suffered a KO loss in a featherweight title fight against Ilia Topuria, while Oliveira is coming off a unanimous decision victory against Michael Chandler.
