Charles Oliveira has apologised to his fans after being submitted in the second round of his clash with Islam Makhachev - and has vowed to earn another shot the UFC lightweight title.
The Brazilian fighter hadn't lost in 11 fights dating back to the end of 2017, but was overpowered in a two-round fight with the Russian, who ultimately dropped him and forced him to tap out to an arm triangle. Oliveira had entered the fight as the underdog, despite being viewed as the reigning champion in many fan's eyes.
He technically lost his belt on the scales prior to his last defence against Justin Gaethje in May. But given that he had only missed weight by half-a-pound and convincingly beat the American, many fans and experts believed that he had a legitimate claim to the belt.
This time around, Oliveira claims to have had no issue with the weight cut, declaring in a social media video which was translated to English from his native Portuguese that he would not be making excuses for his loss. He simply congratulated Makhachev on his victory, and promised to return to the sport's summit.
“Hey everyone from Brazil and the rest of the world, everyone that supported me and cheered me on,” he said. “I just wanted to pass by here to send out a message and simply apologise. I believe that everything I did in training was done right, including the weight cut, but yesterday I wasn’t able to find myself in the fight.
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"Yesterday, Islam was better than I was in terms of timing and did an overall better fight, coming out as champion. I haven’t even slept yet because naturally I’ve been reflecting on everything that happened. Thank you, thank you so much to all the people that have sent me both positive and negative messages. The criticism is all part of this crazy sport. I’ll go home now and I’ll dedicate myself, train and conquer once again. So thank you again to everyone that texted me.”
It echoes sentiments from fight night, where Oliveira vowed to make his return to the gym quickly, just as he did after his previous loss to Paul Felder in 2017. That night, he was stopped in the second round as well, with the American putting him away through ground-and-pound, starting a winning run that would last almost five years.
“Eleven fights ago I lost, and I went back to the gym the same day because I said ‘I’m going to go and get this done,” he said in the post-fight press conference. “And together, for all those people that love me and root for me and support me, they’re always behind me, we’re going to train and we’re going to be together on this, and we’re going to turn this around. And this belt’s going to be mine again.
