Max Holloway is happy to see former UFC lightweight champion Charles Oliveira bounce back in emphatic fashion.
Oliveira (34-9 MMA, 22-9 UFC) scored a first-round TKO of Beneil Dariush in this past Saturday’s UFC 289 co-main event. Oliveira was able to rebound from a lopsided submission loss to Islam Makhachev (24-1 MMA, 13-1 UFC) last October, and Holloway thinks his big finish over Dariush was enough to earn him another shot at the 155-pound title.
“I think Charles is amazing, man,” Holloway told The Mac Life. “You know all the naysayers and everybody saying he’s done and blah, blah, blah? He’s getting his rightful spot in October to get that rematch, And I’m excited to watch it happen.”
Another fighter angling to run things back with Makhachev is featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski (25-2 MMA, 12-1 UFC), who took Makhachev to the brink in their superfight at UFC 284 in February.
Volkanovski’s next assignment is a title-unification bout with interim featherweight champion Yair Rodriguez in the UFC 290 headliner on July 8 in Las Vegas. If he gets past Rodriguez in impressive fashion, Holloway wouldn’t be surprised if his former foe got the title opportunity instead of Oliveira.
“Oh, brother, I think he (Oliveira) did more than enough,” Holloway added. “But we’ll see. Alex is still coming up on July 8. If Alex goes out there and does something amazing, I think UFC picks him too. So, we’ll see what happens. I guess it’s a gamble right now.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 289.