Charles Oliveira Releases Statement Regarding Withdrawal from UFC 288

Charles
Oliveira isn’t taking any chances when it comes to his matchup
with Beneil
Dariush.

The former lightweight champion revealed in a video on his
Instagram stories Monday that a “small injury” kept him from
preparing properly for what was originally supposed to be the UFC
288 co-main event on May 6. The bout has since been pulled from the
card with plans to reschedule it for a future event.

“I wasn’t able to train, I got injured during wrestling practice,”
Oliveira said in Portuguese (translation via
MMAFighting.com). “I tried to train, I tried to do everything I
could but we couldn’t, so we pulled out of the fight. [Fighting at
UFC 288] would be great because I would be fighting on the same
night of two teammates, ‘Willycat’ [Daniel
Santos] and Rolando [Bedoya], but God knows all things. We’ll
continue working and stay focused.”

Oliveira last appeared at UFC 280 in October, when he lost the
lightweight belt to Islam
Makhachev in a second-round submission defeat in Abu Dhabi.
While Dariush has mentioned UFC 289 as
a targeted landing spot for the fight, Oliveira did not provide
a timetable for his return in the video.

“I have to stay [away from training] for a few days so I can go
back to training soon, and then we’ll reschedule the fight,”
Oliveira said. “I’ll be back to training pretty soon. That’s it, I
had a small injury and decided to pull out so I wouldn’t fight
injured. We’ve made that mistake once and I didn’t want to do it
again. … We’re taking one step back so we can take one, two, three
steps forward soon.”

Prior to his loss to Makhachev, Oliveira authored an 11-bout
winning streak that included victories over the likes of Tony
Ferguson, Michael
Chandler, Justin
Gaethje and Dustin
Poirier. Dariush, meanwhile, is in the midst of an eight-fight
winning streak and could be next in line for a title shot with a
victory against “Do Bronx.”