Charles Oliveira had his winning streak of four fights got cut off last August. The four-fight winning peat ended in a strangely quick fashion.
But Oliveira isn’t seeing this MMA event as a loss, despite what the judges believed that night. Before UFC Fight Night 74 took place, where he fought Max Holloway, Oliveira revealed that he had a neck injury.
About 90 seconds into the fight with Holloway, Oliveira said that he reached for his injured neck while trying to get out of Holloway’s takedown attempt. There were a lot of confusions that time, but after everything settled down, the fight was stopped and the judges favored on Holloway for a TKO win. Oliveira, on the other hand, was being attended to on the canvas for quite a while before being carried out of the cage.
In a recent interview, Oliveira recalled what happened during that night.
“My injury happened during training. I ended up hurting my neck. I underwent physical therapy. When I fought, I was 99 percent healed. But when I got taken down, I ended up feeling my neck again and I lost movement on my left side. The injury was not caused by Max Holloway. It’s something that happened before we fought. That’s why I don’t see that fight as a loss,” he said.
Despite everything that Oliveira and his camp says, the MMA loss will still remain on the his record. Oliveira, who is now holding a record of 20-5 MMA and 8-5 UFC, looks at this event as a motivation to get back up though. He is going up against Myles Jury this coming Saturday in the prelims card fight featured at UFC on FOX 17. Jury is currently holding a record of 15-1 MMA and 6-1 UFC.
Back in 2012, Oliveira made the move to drop to featherweight when the UFC revealed the new MMA division. Jury, on the other hand, will be entering the division for the first time. Like Oliveira, Jury is aiming for a victory after losing for the first time in his pro career last January.
Oliveira said that winning this fight over Jury is just what he needs in order to get him closer to a title shot, even though he lost to Holloway. He is also hoping that the promotion will not take this loss against him.
“I think the UFC knew about that injury I had. I showed up to fight despite the injury, but it didn’t work out. Now, this fight against Myles Jury will be a great way for me to continue my winning ways. Hopefully, I’ll get closer to a title shot,” he said.
With Jury also having a clean record until he lost to Donald Cerrone almost a year ago, Oliveira knows that emerging victorious will not be that easy.
“Myles is a very tough fighter, with wins by knockout, decision, and submission. I know our fight will be a war. I’ll move forward the entire time, like I always do. I have a lot of respect for the work that Myles Jury has done. He’s undefeated, except for his last fight, against Donald Cerrone. But I’ll move forward and impose my rhythm on him. Without a doubt, I’ll be the first fighter to knock him out,” he predicted.
