Charles Oliveria defended his lightweight title this weekend when he submitted Dustin Poirier in the third round, and Conor McGregor is already eyeing up the champion. Take a look.
A lot of fans are up in arms about Conor potentially jumping the line over guys like Justin Gaethje and Islam Makachev to fight for the title, but lets be real, this is a way more exciting fight. No disrespect to the other contenders, but this is Conor McGregor. Everybody wants to see that guy fight for a title, we just do.
Imagine the scenes, round two of Conor McGregor vs a Brazillian champion. Charles trying to avenge Aldo’s loss, while Conor brings back all of the swagger and confidence he brought into that Aldo fight. What if he tells Charles he’s gonna raid his favela on horseback too?
Now, if I’m Dana White and UFC matchmaking, I’m still not giving Conor the next shot in line at the belt. Not because of any “cutting the line” BS or anything, who cares about that, I just wanna make sure he’s at the top of his game when he fights for the title. After all, he is coming off completely snapping his leg in half, and was knocked out in the fight before that.
So, I say you throw him one pre-title fight against a Dan Hooker, or a Tony Ferguson, or maybe even a Nate Diaz. You know, fights he’ll probably win, and then build some momentum going into a title fight against Charles.
And stylistically, this fight absolutely rules. Another striker vs grappler matchup, where Conor realistically might have to capitalize in the opening two, maybe three, rounds. That being said, I really can’t see Conor just give up 4 minutes of a round like Dustin did, so I’m really interested to see what would happen if Charles took him down. And, Dustin had Charles on skates the entire first round, making it the second fight in a row where Charles has been absolutely wobbled in the opening round. What happens if Conor lands on him early? If he does, we could be seeing an all-time redemption story, and new champion Conor McGregor.
