Khabib Nurmagomedov feels Charles Oliveira is beginning to show signs of pressure around his fight with Islam Makhachev.
Oliveira is not the lightweight champion officially, but for all intents and purposes is still the top fighter in the division after being stripped of his title for missing weight by half-a-pound ahead of his last defence. He ultimately defeated Justin Gaethje in that bout at UFC 274, meaning the title was vacated and he must win it again by defeating Makhachev.
Nurmagomedov, who paved the way for Oliveira to fight for the world title when he vacated the belt in October 2020, will be in Makhachev's corner for the Abu Dhabi showdown on October 22. And he feels that the pressure of finally facing his oft-avoided teammate is beginning to show in the Brazilian's pre-fight comments.
Oliveira has claimed that Makhachev is showing arrogance ahead of the bout, and claimed that the Russian is "talking a lot of s***". He is not happy to have to go to the Middle East for the bout, given that Makhachev and Nurmagomedov are superstars in the region and will treat it as a sort of home venue.
“There’s one thing I need to tell you. I want to tell you,” Oliveira said during a recent appearance on the MMA Hoje podcast. “They’re being arrogant, and that’s what will kill them. The arrogance from their manager, from former fighters will kill them. No one will ever hit me harder than life already hit me. I’m a guy that escaped a heart-blowing condition; rheumatism on my bones that even the doctor said I would never fight again.
"I’m coming to your house, my friend, to fight you, to make history and keep my legacy going as the UFC lightweight champion. You’re talking a lot of s***. I’ve always respected all of you. But you better pay attention, so don’t cry about it later. That’s all I have to say.”
Nurmagomedov hit back while speaking to the media after a recent Eagle FC event, claiming that he never said anything disparaging about the man who took his vacant title. He was annoyed to hear Oliveira make such comments, and believes that his concerns are "silly".
“First of all, how can you disparage the man who won the Fighter of the Year award in 2022?" Nurmagomedov asked. "So no one is disparaging him. 11 fights in a row he has won with so many finishes. I think it is silly to think we’re underestimating this fight. This is a very hard fight first of all. Second, tell me in what interview did he refer to him with arrogance? He always referred to him as a champion. If we say that we want to finish the fight early I don’t see arrogance in that, I don’t see arrogance in that at all.
"We have a plan, we want to finish the fight early - I think that Charles also has a plan and that he also wants to finish Islam. I think he also wants to hit his opponent in the face and use his kicks, knees, punches, and elbows, right? He wants to choke his opponent out, break their bones, etc. That’s the reason we step into the Octagon, right? So what is that not arrogance from his side? That he wants to beat Islam Makhachev? Am I right?"
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And Nurmagomedov feels that it's the pressure of the fight that has led to Oliveira being offended by what he believes to have heard from his challenger's team. “What we’re talking about is true, so tell me who offended him?" He continued.
"Not Ali [Abdelaziz, manager to both Makhacehev and Nurmagomedov], not myself, no one insulted him - definitely not Islam, he has never insulted anyone. I don’t see any kind of arrogance here. I simply think he’s starting to feel the pressure of the fight. You know when you’re trying to fight someone, for example, someone like Gaethje, or Chandler or Poireir you know that they have already lost in the past. You can see their pluses and minuses and you can identify the 'switch' in their fight that leads them to victory or defeat.
"So what I believe, and this is solely my point of view, is he may consider this arrogance as well but it doesn’t matter, it appears to me that he looks at Islam and can’t find that 'switch' so because of that he gets nervous. He starts to talk about this so-called arrogance and so on but who does this really concern? On October 22 he steps into the cage and we plan on finishing him whether he likes it or not.”
