Charles Oliveira was treated like a superstar by the Vancouver crowd at UFC 289, before and after his first-round knockout win over Beneil Dariush earlier this month, proving that “do Bronx” was right to walk back from his decision to never fight in the country again.
Oliveira visited Canada four times as a UFC fighter between 2010 and 2016, coming up short in all occasions with defeats to Jim Miller Cub Swanson, Max Holloway and Anthony Pettis. Finished by every single one of them, Oliveira had enough.
“I remember when I took over Oliveira [as a manager] he told me jokingly, but at the same time being very serious, ‘Let’s only make a deal, I don’t fight in Canada,’” Oliveira’s head coach and manager Diego Lima said on this week’s episode of Trocação Franca podcast. “We laughed and said, ‘Ok, you’ll never fight in Canada.’”
Oliveira was booked to face Dariush on the UFC 288 card in Newark, but the Brazilian had to pull out due to an injury. The following pay-per-view was set to take place at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver, and UFC wanted to re-schedule it for that date.
“Sean Shelby said he would keep Dariush [as his opponent], but it had to be in Canada,” Lima said. “I called Charles and said, ‘It’s going to be on the 10th, but in Canada.’ He said, ‘You know what, let’s go. I’m ready. It’s good, another obstacle for me to go through and leave behind.’”
Oliveira did leave that in the past, scoring his first victory in Canadian soil to now hope to face Islam Makhachev a second time for the UFC lightweight gold.
In the end, fighting in Canada will now bring a different memory for the São Paulo star.
“To have a standing ovation by [almost] 20,000 people in Vancouver, Canada, felt like I was fighting in my backyard,” Oliveira told Trocação Franca. “I’ll never forget that in my life. I cried walking out, I cried after the fight, so that will never leave my head.
“The event was over, it was late at night, and you go back to the hotel and there’s thousands of people screaming your name. I’ll never forget that. It felt like they would flip my car over with so many people over it. If you weren’t there to feel it, you won’t understand. I’ve only seen that in movies.”
It took Oliveira more than a decade to go from just another good Brazilian fighter to a fan-favorite around the world, and the former 155-pound champion thinks it’s credit to his “humbleness and respect to others.”
“I never let money, car, house and fame speak louder,” Oliveira said. “I was always the same respectful kid, the guy that hugs everybody and respects everybody. Tell me one controversy involving my name. There’s none, right? Charles is the same kid from the favela, who came from trash, from shit. Look where I am now, and still the same kid. I take [clothes] from my body to give to others.
“I’m the same guy. Sure, I drive a cool car, but I got punched and f*cking bled and sweat a lot for this. These are the fruits of my work. To walk with cool clothes, to dress well, to eat something nice, I’m working for this. But I’m the same kid. I’m illuminated. God held me by my hand and said, ‘Shine, kid.’”
“I always ask people that are close to me, like my cousin and my father, the real ones, if I’m changing,” he continued. “[They say] ‘No, you’re still the same.’ The day one of they say it’s too much I’ll be like, hold on a minute. There’s a bunch to people talking crap when in reality they just want attention and media, they do nothing — or want to suck my blood like a vampire, you know? I want nothing with people like that.”
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