UFC 262: Time To Give Charles Oliveira His Due, Title

Many questioned how Charles Oliveira would handle the pressure of Michael Chandler at UFC 262.

Turns out, Oliveira knew exactly what he was doing.

After just missing on a submission attempt in the first round, Oliveira knocked Chandler out in the second, becoming the UFC lightweight champion in the process.

The win cemented quite the run for Oliveira, who a few short years ago was sitting at 2-4 during a six-fight run that included losses to Anthony Pettis, Max Holloway, Ricardo Lamas and Paul Felder.

It would appear as if that stretch, though, only gave Oliveira the confidence he needed to compete with the best of the best at 155 pounds. 

Following the 2017 loss to Felder via TKO at UFC 218, Oliveira took time off to prepare. He returned in June 2019 and submitted Clay Guida in the first round. 

Two more submission wins over Christos Giagos and Jim Miller that year showed that Oliveira was back and ready to contend.

He submitted David Teymur to begin 2019, followed that up with a second round finish of Nik Lentz and stretched his win streak to six in a row with a knockout of Jared Gordon that earned him a “Performance of the Night” bonus.

The Submission King

Along the way, Oliveira broke the UFC record for most submission wins. A number he added to it in 2020 when he locked in a guillotine on Kevin Lee. 

This past December, Oliveira dominated Tony Ferguson for three rounds and 15 minutes of action. 

All of that put him up against Chandler to crown a new champion when Khabib Nurmagomedov vacated the belt and retired. 

Now, after 11 years of competing inside the Octagon, Oliveira can call himself a champion. Not bad for a guy many believed was nothing more than a gatekeeper with the ability to score a submission victory from a number of different holds.