On Wednesday, UFC President Dana White, revealed that Islam Makhachev will be facing Charles Oliveira in UFC 294 at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. This event will happen on October 21st exactly one year since they first shared the Octagon together. Islam Makhachev who has an impressive record of 24-1 will be defending his Lightweight championship belt for the second time after coming off an unconvincing win over the feather wight champion Alexander Volkanovski, earlier this year.
Islam Makhachev who is considered by many to be Khabib’s succesor, initially wanted another super fight against the Welterweight champion Leon Edwards but that fight did not materialize. Rumors were roaming around the MMA space, that the reason why he wanted to move up to Welterweight was to leave room for Bellator lightweight champion Usman Nurmagomedov as they are close friends. Since PFL is planning to buy Bellator, many Bellator fighters have since been signed by the UFC.
Charles Oliveira who is coming off a dominant win over Beniel Dariush will be seeking to reclaim his lightweight title. “Do Bronx” is one of the best UFC lightweights of all time and his championship run is claimed to be one of the best eras in the lightweight division. Oliveira who has won 12 of his last 13 bouts was a very dominant champion with wins over top contenders such as Justin Gaethje, Dustin Poirier, Michael Chandler and Beniel Dariush. It will be interesting to see how this bout plays out.
I love watching UFC fights
this is interesting