Video: Who should Charles Oliveira face in the vacant UFC lightweight title bout?

MMA News

Video: Who should Charles Oliveira face in the vacant UFC lightweight title bout?

Former UFC lightweight champion Charles Oliveira is guaranteed to fight for the vacant title next time he competes.

Oliveira missed weight by a half-pound for his UFC 274 main event bout against Justin Gaethje, resulting in a loss of the title on the scale at official weigh-ins. The fight proceeded as planned and Oliveira (33-8 MMA, 21-8 UFC) impressed everyone as he finished Gaethje (23-4 MMA, 6-4 UFC) via submission in the first round.

Since UFC president Dana White has said Oliveira will compete for the vacant title in his next bout, who should be the other man standing across the cage from him?

Oliveira has defeated Gaethje, Dustin Poirier, Michael Chandler, and Tony Ferguson as a part of his current 11-fight win streak. The man holding the No. 3 slot in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings, Islam Makhachev has a strong argument to be next in line. Beneil Dariush, who holds the No. 6 spot also has a case.

Of course, there’s always the wild card in former champ-champ Conor McGregor, who could return and jump the line. Oliveira even mentioned him as a part of his mic-drop call out during his in-cage interview after his finish of Gaethje.

Our Spinning Back Clique panel of Brian “Goze” Garcia, Mike Bohn and Nolan King discuss the best option for Oliveira’s next opponent along with host “Gorgeous” George Garcia. Check out their conversation in the video above, and don’t miss the full episode below.

Video: Who should Charles Oliveira face in the vacant UFC lightweight title bout?