{"id":405,"date":"2022-10-11T03:03:32","date_gmt":"2022-10-11T02:03:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/?p=405"},"modified":"2022-10-11T07:21:27","modified_gmt":"2022-10-11T06:21:27","slug":"anthony-smith-says-im-done-doubting-charles-oliveira-explains-how-he-beats-islam-makhachev-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/anthony-smith-says-im-done-doubting-charles-oliveira-explains-how-he-beats-islam-makhachev-a\/","title":{"rendered":"Anthony Smith says \u2018I\u2019m done doubting\u2019 Charles Oliveira, explains how he beats Islam Makhachev at UFC 280"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"EhiGhA\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">Anthony Smith\u00a0has often heaped praise on\u00a0Charles Oliveira\u00a0since \u201cDo Bronx\u201d became the best lightweight in the UFC, but continuously found himself picking Oliveira\u2019s opponents when it came time to make actual predictions for his fights.<\/p>\n<p id=\"i2zNHv\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">He did it when Oliveira fought\u00a0Michael Chandler\u00a0for the vacant UFC lightweight title. He did it again when Oliveira defended the belt against\u00a0Dustin Poirier\u00a0and then went three for three after picking\u00a0Justin Gaethje\u00a0to beat Oliveira in his most recent outing.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\"  id=\"_ytid_97076\"  width=\"696\" height=\"391\"  data-origwidth=\"696\" data-origheight=\"391\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4w9Ll3aHGFo?enablejsapi=1&#038;autoplay=0&#038;cc_load_policy=0&#038;cc_lang_pref=&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;loop=0&#038;modestbranding=0&#038;rel=1&#038;fs=1&#038;playsinline=0&#038;autohide=2&#038;theme=dark&#038;color=red&#038;controls=1&#038;\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__  epyt-is-override  no-lazyload\" title=\"YouTube player\"  allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen data-no-lazy=\"1\" data-skipgform_ajax_framebjll=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p id=\"WhfKao\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">Now, with Oliveira scheduled to face\u00a0Islam Makhachev\u00a0in the\u00a0UFC 280\u00a0main event \u2014 a matchup between the No. 1 and No. 3 lightweights, respectively, in the\u00a0MMA Fighting Global Rankings\u00a0\u2014 Smith admits he\u2019s done doubting the Brazilian.<\/p>\n<p id=\"xZfhCr\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cI\u2019m not going to do it anymore,\u201d Smith said with a laugh on\u00a0<em>The Fighter vs. The Writer.<\/em>\u00a0\u201cI always, always, I don\u2019t want to say discredit, but I always doubt Charles Oliveira. Then afterwards I tell myself why do you do that? Cause I have a lot of respect for that guy but even going into the Poirier fight, well Poirier\u2019s kind of the uncrowned champion here and I believe in Charles Oliveira but I think Poirier gets this done. I did the same thing with Chandler. I\u2019m not doing it anymore.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cHis last three or four opponents, they knock him down and nobody goes to grappling,\u201d Makhachev said in an interview with The National. \u201cNobody tried to finish him there. Nobody tried to do some ground-and-pound. That\u2019s why nobody from these opponents could stop him.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cBut I\u2019m not scared of his jiu-jitsu skills because I have good skills in Sambo and grappling and will give him a hard time in striking. That\u2019s why I\u2019m going to knock him down and try to finish him. Because this guy has most finishes in the UFC, my goal is I have to finish him. I\u2019m going to take his record.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">American Kickboxing Academy head coach Javier Mendez hailed Makhachev\u2019s striking and called him the most well-rounded lightweight of all time. But Oliveira was able to knock out Michael Chandler, and dropped Justin Gaethje before he submitted him to show he\u2019s not just a threat on the ground.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Makhachev may be brimming with confidence at his own ability, but he acknowledged Oliveira is heading into their fight with an invincible aura.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cCharles is very dangerous,\u201d Makhachev said. \u201cHe always finishes his opponent, and he\u2019s dangerous in the striking and on the ground. But I believe in my skills. I\u2019m ready for the fight standing up or on the ground \u2013 it doesn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cI don\u2019t think this is the biggest test (of my career). Maybe I\u2019ve beat some guy who has more skills. But right now, he\u2019s the champion. And, right now, at this moment in his career, because he has a good win streak \u2013 he had many losses before and he finished all his opponents \u2013 he feels like nobody can stop him. But Oct. 22, I\u2019m going to come to the cage and stop him there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Anthony Smith\u00a0has often heaped praise on\u00a0Charles Oliveira\u00a0since \u201cDo Bronx\u201d became the best lightweight in the UFC, but continuously found himself picking Oliveira\u2019s opponents when it came time to make actual predictions for his fights. He did it when Oliveira fought\u00a0Michael Chandler\u00a0for the vacant UFC lightweight title. He did it again when Oliveira defended the belt [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":406,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-405","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-video","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"post_format-post-format-video"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":409,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405\/revisions\/409"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmamag.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}