Justin Gaethje doesn’t think Charles Oliveira has what it takes to get the job done against Tony Ferguson.
Ferguson (25-4 MMA, 15-2 UFC) and Oliveira (29-8 MMA, 17-8 UFC) square off Saturday in the co-main event of UFC 256, where “El Cucuy” will look to rebound from his first loss in more than eight years.
Gaethje, who snapped Ferguson’s 12-fight winning streak last May at UFC 249, implemented a perfect game plan to batter Ferguson in standup and doesn’t think Oliveira has that required skillset to do the same.
“I don’t know, man, how intriguing,” Gaethje said in an interview with The Schmo. “Tony coming back – I was talking about it earlier with some fighters, and I think Tony is gonna win. I think to do what I did against him, you have to fight a certain way, and I don’t think Oliveira fights like that.
“I think his striking technique or the way he does it is similar to someone like Anthony Pettis, who is on their heels a lot. So I think he’s going to have similar issues that Pettis had against Ferguson.”
After enduring some early adversity, Ferguson was able to use his pressure to stifle Pettis, eventually resulting in a corner stoppage to win their fight at UFC 229.
Oliveira, who’s the record holder for most submission wins in UFC history, is currently riding an impressive seven-fight finishing streak as he readies for his biggest opportunity to date. He’ll be without his head coach, Diego Lima, who stayed behind in Brazil after testing positive for COVID-19.
Justin Gaethje: Charles Oliveira doesn’t have style to do what I did to Tony Ferguson