Islam Makhachev wanted to respond to Charles Oliveira who complained about the location of their next fight at UFC 294.
Islam Makhachev will defend his lightweight title this month when he faces Charles Oliveira at UFC 294 in Abu Dhabi. And the location of the fight poses a problem for ‘Do Bronx’ who, on Saturday, said he didn’t think it was fair.
Oliveira recently said he doesn’t think it’s fair to have to fight Makhachev in Abu Dhabi again, but Makhachev reminded him that he traveled to enemy territory for his first title defense against Alexander Volkanovski in Perth, Australia.
Indeed, a year after his defeat against the same Makhachev, Oliveira finds himself in almost similar conditions. The two fighters will face each other in Abu Dhabi, and Charles Oliveira is disappointed that this clash will not take place elsewhere, even if Makhachev is not from the host country.
And all this made Islam react, who finds that Oliveira is exaggerating (via his X account):
Charles, I asked to fight in US in the summer, but UFC has other plans, I am a UFC fighter like you,never set the conditions for the UFC and fought where they offered, my last fight took place in Australia at the challenger’s backyrd, simple, everything you say makes no sense
— Makhachev Islam (@MAKHACHEVMMA) October 2, 2023
“Charles, I asked to fight in the United States this summer, but the UFC had other plans. I’m a UFC fighter like you, I never set the terms of the UFC and I fought where they offered, my last fight was in Australia at the challenger, it’s simple , everything you say makes no sense!«
It is hard to imagine at this stage that Makhachev could influence the decisions of the UFC and at the same time, we can understand Charles Oliveira, who himself was hoping for a fight in his country, Brazil.
Regardless, the predictions are already going well for this clash, like that of Sean O’Malley here or the more technical explanations of Alexander Volkanovski there.
