Can Charles Oliveira bounce back from KO loss, stay perfect at home in Brazil?

Charles Oliveira is one of the most beloved Brazilian fighters in mixed martial arts history, and “Do Bronxs” is set for a homecoming this weekend in Rio de Janeiro.

The former lightweight champion is set to compete in his home country for the first time in 5.5 years in a UFC Fight Night main event Saturday against Mateusz Gamrot.

Oliveira last fought in Brazil in March of 2020, but that card didn’t take place in front of any fans — that event didn’t permit spectators to attend due to newly-introduced COVID restrictions at the time — so he was unable to hear the roar of a crowd when he submitted Kevin Lee.

The most recent time Oliveira fought in front of his home fans was when he knocked out Jared Gordon in just 86 seconds in Sao Paulo. Overall, Oliveira is 6-0 in the UFC when fighting in Brazil, with six Performance of the Night awards plus one Fight of the Night in those matchups. In addition to beating Lee and Gordon, he submitted Andy Ogle in 2014, submitted Nik Lentz in 2015, submitted Christos Giagos in 2018 and submitted David Teymur in 2019.

Oliveira can move into a tie for second place on the UFC’s all-time wins list if he gets his hand raised against Gamrot. Oliveira’s 23 wins are the third most in UFC history, tying him with Max Holloway, Andrei Arlovski and Donald Cerrone. Neil Magny (24) and Jim Miller (27) are the only fighters currently ahead of Oliveira heading into the fighter’s eighth UFC main event.

The last time fight fans saw Oliveira compete, he was knocked out cold by Ilia Topuria in a vacant lightweight title bout at UFC 317 in late June.

Oliveira holds the UFC record for most submission wins with 16 and most total stoppage wins with 20; however, he hasn’t gotten a finish in more than two years. 

The soon-to-be 36-year-old has alternated wins and losses since 2022, with his most recent win being a unanimous decision over Michael Chandler 11 months ago. Oliveira is 2-3 in his past five after having his four-year, 11-fight winning streak snapped by Islam Makhachev three years ago.

More concerning than his age or inability to string together multiple wins in a row lately is the fact that he's coming off a devastating knockout loss just 3.5 months ago.

Oliveira was knocked out cold by Topuria. A piston right hand ended the fight, and Topuria also landed a left hook, then two hammer fists while Oliveira was already unconscious.

Typically, fighters don’t rush back to action after being on the receiving end of that type of head trauma, although Oliveira desperately wanted to be on the UFC Rio card, so once he was medically cleared to resume training, he quickly offered his services.

Oliveira is currently the No. 4-ranked contender in the 155-pound division, and it’ll be interesting to see if his durability is anywhere close to what it was prior to that KO loss. Before facing Topuria, Oliveira had never been knocked out that severely and was able to take punches from some of the division’s hardest punchers like Dustin Poirier and Justin Gaethje.

One silver lining heading into the weekend for Oliveira is that his opponent isn’t known for his knockout power.

Gamrot, instead, is regarded as one of the most talented grapplers in the division in terms of his wrestling and scrambling ability.

Oliveira was originally scheduled to face Rafael Fiziev this weekend, but Fiziev withdrew two weeks ago after he sustained another knee injury. Fiziev is a striking specialist and is always a knockout threat when the fight is on the feet.

That isn’t to say Gamrot has zero pop to his shots; it’s just that he relies on the takedown. In fact, Gamrot has earned at least one takedown against all of his UFC opponents to date. His 49 total takedowns lead all active UFC lightweights and rank fourth all-time in the division.

He also boasts a 90 per cent takedown defence and has only been taken down one time in his entire UFC tenure. That was in his incredible five-round split decision win over Arman Tsarukyan in 2022 — still one of the best fights of the decade, especially if you appreciate high-level grappling exchanges and scrambles.

Gamrot has three KO/TKO wins in his 11-fight UFC career, but his two most recent such victories were due to injury. Fiziev blew out his knee during his 2023 bout with Gamrot, resulting in a TKO loss, and Diego Ferreira tapped out after sustaining an injury due to a knee to the body in a 2021 matchup.

Gamrot’s only proper knockout win in the UFC was in his second bout when he flattened Scott Holtzman with a one-two down the pipe.

Gamrot is 24-3 with one no-contest overall and has never been finished in his MMA career. Two of his three losses at the UFC level were via split decision, including his three-round decision loss to Dan Hooker at UFC 305 last summer.

Facing a former champion and elite finisher like Oliveira will be a significant test for Gamrot, but one he’s looking forward to.

The No. 8-ranked contender at lightweight could shoot into the top five of the division and enter the greater title conversation with a statement win over a respected former champion like Oliveira.

Gamrot is coming off a decision win over Ludovit Klein in late May and always keeps in shape even when he doesn’t have a fight scheduled, so as soon as it was known Fiziev was injured, he immediately offered to step in to face Oliveira on short notice.

“I'm ready and hungry to jump in,” Gamrot posted to social media after Fiziev’s injury was initially reported. “I told UFC straight — I want to face you in your own house. This will be a true masterclass on the ground, and I’m ready to prove it. … I hear you’re worried about my style, even though you had a full training camp. I had none, and still I’m ready to step into the cage.”

This will be Gamrot’s fourth Fight Night main event spotlight and could be his first UFC win outside of the United States. Since joining the organization in 2020, Gamrot is a perfect 8-0 in fights that take place in America, but 0-3 in fights abroad, losing twice in Abu Dhabi and once in Australia.

UFC Rio takes place Saturday at Farmasi Arena. It marks the organization’s 41st event held in Brazil and the 13th in Rio de Janeiro.

Below is the projected bout order for the card:

MAIN CARD

-- Charles Oliveira vs. Mateusz Gamrot

-- Deiveson Figueiredo vs. Montel Jackson

-- Vicente Luque vs. Joel Alvarez

-- Jhonata Diniz vs. Mario Pinto

-- Ricardo Ramos vs. Kaan Ofli

-- Lucas Almeida vs. Michael Aswell

PRELIMINARY CARD

-- Jafel Filho vs. Clayton Carpenter

-- Vitor Petrino vs. Thomas Petersen

-- Bia Mesquita vs. Irina Alekseeva

-- Lucas Rocha vs. Stewart Nicoll

-- Valter Walker vs. Mohammed Usman

-- Julia Polastri vs. Karolina Kowalkiewicz

-- Luan Lacerda vs. Saimon Oliveira