Preparations are nearly complete for Charles
Oliveira’s lightweight title bid against Ilia
Topuria in the UFC 317
main event.
Advertisement
Chute Boxe coach Diego Lima recently spoke with Sherdog about
Oliveira’s training camp ahead of the bout, which will take place
on June 28 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
“We are very focused on Topuria,” Lima said. “We are using several
sparring partners who are his size. We invested a lot in boxing
training for this fight considering Topuria’s firepower.”
While Lima has already stated there is no bad blood between Chute
Boxe and
The Fighting Nerds following Ian Garry’s
victory over Carlos
Prates at UFC Kansas City, he was unable to accept Jean Silva’s
offer to help Oliveira prepare for Topuria. However it’s possible
that they could collaborate in the future.
“I really like Jean Silva,
he knows that,” Lima said. “He’s a guy I have a lot of affection
for and admire. I was really happy that he offered, but the fight
was actually arranged at the last minute. We had our entire
schedule set up, with a lot of things going on, but it ended up
getting too busy and we weren’t able to train together. But the
doors are open for us to train in the future because Jean is a guy
I really support, and he has incredible talent.”
Lima has been impressed by the engagement of diehard fans leading
up to the lightweight championship clash.
“We received messages from all over the world,” he said. “There was
an American fan who did an absurd study in Artificial Intelligence,
with graphs, drawings and even simulations of Charles and Topuria’s
blows as if they were fighting. Truly impressive. Obviously we have
a technical team in each area helping us, but we receive and absorb
everything — including the criticism.”
As far as Topuria’s statement that he would make Oliveira’s head
explode, Lima preferred not to take the claim seriously.
“I think it’s part of the promotion,” Lima said. “About two months
ago I was in Spain and met Topuria in person. We talked, and I
found him to be very polite, very respectful and I have nothing bad
to say about him. Topuria is coming into an incredible moment. He
is undefeated coming off two sensational victories over Holloway
and Volkanovski, two legends of the sport. So it’s part of the
marketing to sell the fight, and the more he talks the better to
sell the fight and bring more excitement.”
Lima doesn’t expect Oliveira vs. Topuria to go the full 25
minutes.
“It won’t end on points,” he said. “Charles is always looking to
end the fight. He doesn’t fight to avoid losing, just like Topuria,
so I don’t see this fight going to the end of 25 minutes. I believe
Charles will win by knockout or submission.”
If his athlete wins, Diego believes his next fight will be with
Arman
Tsarukyan. The Brazilian also criticized Justin
Gaethje’s stance, who had threatened to retire if the UFC
didn’t give him the title shot next.
“So I think Gaethje should retire,” Lima said. “Gaethje is
undoubtedly a very tough guy and deserves respect for his
trajectory, but the fact is that he had many opportunities. But
Arman is undoubtedly ahead of him. It wouldn’t make sense for
Gaethje to get ahead of him, unless the two of them make it to a
title eliminator and Gaethje wins.”
In the welterweight division, the Chute Boxe leader expects that
Islam
Makhachev will beat Jack
Della Maddalena but will not be able to reign in the
welterweight division as he did at lightweight.
“I take my hat off to Makhachev because just by moving up he is
proving how tough he is,” Lima said. “He was in a category where he
was dominating, so there was no reason to move up. He went to an
extremely difficult division, which is going through one of the
most difficult moments in its history. In addition to Maddalena,
there is Garry, [Michael] Morales, Shavkat [Rakhmonov], Belal
[Muhammad], [Sean] Brady. I see him beating Maddalena, but I don’t
see him reigning in the division.”