It feels like he just never got much of the spotlight during his recent rise to champ status. His opponents always got the hype. It was (name) vs Oliveria. He’s only 32!
Submits Kevin Lee and pushes his path towards decline, then eventual release from the UFC.
Breaks Ferguson into a living death decision win, further crushing the Tony myth.
KO’s Chandler with all that hype he brought with him from Bellator. Chandler then has a banger, but unanimous loss to Justin.
Submits Dustin. I don’t know about this one. Charles is definitely getting better all around and has some UFC submission records, but Dustin just looked tired and has complained about not liking the schedule of a fighter.
I would think that the betting lines would be pretty close for Justin vs Charles though!
For one thing, you can see the massive improvements in Oliveira’s stand up over the last two fights. He is a different fighter than he used to be. Not only is he willing to walk through hard punches and take them, his striking has gotten much better. Yeah, he jacked up up Chandler. On Saturday night though Dustin gassed and I think a big reason why was that Oliveira landed some nasty body shot early on.
Second, Poirier, Gaethje, Chandler, Dariush, and Islam are all killers capable of being the champion. You also have RDA, proper 12 and Hooker who are really good fighters.
155 is still loaded, and Oliveira has gotten much better. End thread.
Dustin, Justin, Micheal, Tony, Conor and Dan all stand and trade basically every time they fight. You can flip a coin every time any of those guys fight each other, it comes down to who zigs and zags at the right or wrong time. You cannot hold a title fighting the way most of the top 10s at LW fight. I thought you guys were smarter than this.
Khabibs little cousin will be the reigning, defending LW champion. Aside from Charles, khabibs cousin and Dariush. The rest of the top 10 155ers have low fight IQ.
I’m not always looking for it but this thread does have the feel of disrespect for Charles. The fights are extremely close in the division so it speaks of the division being weak? So if there is one dominant guy (Khabib) it makes the division stronger somehow deeper? No.
Because Oliveira worked the body a lot and it wore Dustin down. In the second round he got beat up on the ground. He also used a lot of energy trying to put Charles away in the first.
Charles put a pace on him that not even Gaethje could. He got tired.
I said it in the main thread after round 1, by Dustin not putting him away it very likely took as much of a mental toll as physical. He gave Charles everything he had power wise.
The LW division coud be the best the sport has ever seen and “155 just that bad”? Ha ha
I think Gaethje vs Khabib and Poirier vs Olivera showed that SOME of the very top guys are weak in the sub game. Chandler we don’t know, Conor is weak there, etc. Dariush, Ferguson are not. Islam’s top control is so good that could Charles sub him from his back? We’ll find out.
Poirier almost KOed Charles, and with Gaethje as well it’ll either be a KO win by Justin or he’ll get subbed too.
It’s a division in transition, like 170 after GSP walked away or 205 post-Jones.
A lot of the top names are tainted after convincing losses to Khabib, and the likes of Dariush and Makhachev aren’t particularly well known among casuals.
I take nothing away from Oliveira, though. This is a guy at the peak of his powers both physically and mentally. I think this version of him is a match for any former champion.
Dustin is as experienced and savvy as they come, but he was wrong for that. Like you mentioned and based on the presser, he thought he would put Charles away in one round.
He saw what happened in the Chandler fight. Obviously Oliveira is a different fighter now.
