Charles Oliveira’s Coach Expects ‘Impressive’ Win Over Justin Gaethje at UFC 274

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It should come as a shock to absolutely no one that the coach of Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight champ expects his fighter will win impressively.

The current lightweight king, Charles Oliveira, has won in each of his last 10 outings, including nine by finish. Fresh off of a December win over Dustin Poirier, Oliveira did not waste much time before preparing for his next challenge: Justin Gaethje. “Do Bronx” will face off against the vaunted striker at UFC 274, a card that was initially announced for Brazil, but was shifted to the U.S. due to the pandemic. Oliveira was not thrilled about this relocation, per his coach Diego Lima, who spoke to Sherdog this week about the matchup and much more.

“Definitely, it was a big disappointment,” Lima explained. “There is no bigger emotion for a champion than to fight [in front of their] home crowd. From the 29 fights Charles did in [the] UFC, he fought six times in Brazil. Coincidence or not, he won all of them. Fighting with the support of the Brazilian crowd is priceless at least to a Brazilian fighter.”

The coach also recalled that Oliveira was the first to fight without the public, doing so in the beginning of the pandemic against Kevin Lee in Brasilia. “Do Bronx” would have preferred to be the first to fight in front of a Brazilian crowd again as a local champion, but he understands it is complicated.

“Of course Charles got really sad when he got the news, but we know the difficult moments the world is passing through. All the bureaucracy and politics involved in a decision like that. There is nothing we could do, except train harder and fight our best to keep our belt,” the leader of Chute Boxe Sao Paulo lamented.

Coming off an impressive win in the second round against Poirier, where the champ was criticized for receiving too much blows in the first round, Lima revealed that they didn’t make any changes in his training routine.

“Charles is getting more complete each time in all areas, and people were able to feel that in his last ten fights,” the head coach admitted. “Today, he is not a jiu-jitsu fighter in MMA; he is an MMA fighter and a world MMA champion. Our camp is basically the same; Charles has a schedule where he trains everything. A lot of muay Thai, wrestling, ground [training]. Our goal is always the same: finish the fight, and my concern, as trainer, is to find what the opponent will bring to us and start to work over that.”

Lima continued, “Against [Kevin Lee], we worked a lot on frontal kicks; against [Tony Ferguson], we knew that get him stabilized in the ground would be a great choice; against [Michael Chandler], we worked on Charles better range; against Poirier, we knew his boxing skills were great, and once Charles just walks forward, we worked on the knee [strikes].”

Against Gaethje, Lima’s coach was quick to note that taking advantage of Gaethje’s aggressiveness is a key tactic in the fight.

“Gaethje is a very aggressive opponent with a lot of weapons and we are working over his game in all areas,” Lima stated. “All I can say is that you can expect an Oliveira as aggressive as the one who fought Poirier, not leaving results in judges’ hands. You will never see Charles entering in the Octagon to not lose. He will always fight to win, and you can expect another impressive one over Gaethje.