Max Holloway and Charles Oliveira are set to face each other at UFC 326 in a fight that will determine who the Baddest Mother F–ker in the UFC is. The fight also happens to be the second time they’ve stepped into the cage against each other, although the first fight was barely a fight.
Holloway and Oliveira initially faced off back in August 2015 in the main event of a Saskatoon Fight Night. But what should have been the greatest MMA fight to ever be held in Saskatchewan ended in disaster after Oliveira was forced to quit just 1:39 into the fight due to a bizarre neck injury that rendered him unable to continue.
After a short bit of action that saw Oliveira chasing Holloway for a takedown, “Do Bronx” grabbed at his neck and went down to the canvas. The referee waved things off and it took minutes for medical staff to get Charles out of the cage.
“It was all very strange, really crazy how it happened,” Lima said in an interview with MMA Fighting. “So much so that even today nobody knows what actually happened. The hospital wouldn’t let him leave or return to Brazil because they couldn’t detect exactly what the problem was, he still had that paralysis. It was something very serious that no one ever figured out.”
“It’s not like, man, he’s getting beat up in this fight,” he added. “Nothing like that. The fight hadn’t even really developed yet. It was just starting to find its rhythm. It was very scary precisely because of that. If we know what it is, we treat it. But since no one knew exactly what it was, there was nothing to treat. He stayed hospitalized, and the hospital didn’t want to release him at all because he wasn’t improving.”
Now we just have to hope that nothing like this happens again. But Charles Oliveira has gone through multiple evolutions since that defeat. Back in 2015 he was a featherweight who couldn’t seem to win the big fights and often couldn’t even make weight. A move to 155 and change in mentality led to his infamous 11 fight win streak.
Oliveira is now 3-3 over his last six against top flight competition. He has a chance to cement himself at the top of the lightweight division with a win over Max Holloway on March 7th. And this time, God willing, there won’t be a freak injury to get in the way of what should be a legendary fight.
