5 best Charles Oliveira submissions in the UFC
Former UFC lightweight champion Charles Oliveira is not only one of the best fighters on the planet, he’s also the most successful submission artist in UFC history.
Since his octagon debut back in 2010, Charles Oliveira has delivered no fewer than 16 tap-out wins, using all kinds of holds to finish his foes. At the age of 34, ‘Do Bronx’ still has plenty of time to add to his total, meaning he could set an unbreakable record once he’s done.
For now, though, here are the five best submissions from Charles Oliveira in the UFC.
#5. Charles Oliveira vs. David Teymur – UFC Fight Night 144
Once largely seen as a fighter who could give out punishment but couldn’t take it in return, Charles Oliveira proved his toughness in this 2019 bout with Swedish kickboxer David Teymur by going through hell to tap him out.
The fight was a crude and dirty one at times. Oliveira took a couple of early eye pokes and even suffered a knockdown in the first round, but he came roaring back to bust the Swede up with strikes of his own.
In the second round, meanwhile, ‘Do Bronx’ really turned up the heat. Looking angry, he stormed Teymur with some strikes, dropped him, and when the referee didn’t step in, he instead snatched up his neck.
Moments later, Oliveira rolled into an anaconda choke and quickly tightened it up to force Teymur to tap out instantly.
Sure, ‘Do Bronx’ has pulled off some better submissions from an aesthetic point of view, but the skill and poise he showed to put Teymur away after such a dirty fight means it belongs amongst his best tapouts.
#4. Charles Oliveira vs. Kevin Lee – UFC Fight Night 170
The first UFC event to take place during the COVID-19 pandemic saw the promotion visit Brazil. With no fans in attendance, Charles Oliveira and Kevin Lee did battle in the headliner, and the result was one of Oliveira’s very best submissions.
At the time, Lee was largely favored to win the bout. Sure, Oliveira was riding a six-fight win streak, but ‘The Motown Phenom’ seemed to have stronger wrestling, striking, and had just knocked out Gregor Gillespie in an all-time highlight reel moment.
However, after two back-and-forth rounds, it was clear that Oliveira’s grappling skill had Lee a little spooked, and the American was fighting off the back foot.
When Oliveira swarmed him with strikes to open the third, then, Lee did the instinctive thing and shot for a takedown. Within seconds, ‘Do Bronx’ caught him in a tight guillotine, jumped to guard, and forced a tap there and then.
While the win was Oliveira’s seventh in a row, this was the one that really propelled him into title contention at 155 pounds – and he never looked back.
#3. Charles Oliveira vs. Eric Wisely – UFC on Fox 2
Charles Oliveira’s brief run at 145 pounds produced some fun fights, but ‘Do Bronx’ never really climbed into full title contention at any stage.
However, his time as a featherweight did see him produce one of the most unique – and best – submission wins of his career.
Faced with the unheralded Eric Wisely in a preliminary bout on the second UFC on Fox event, ‘Do Bronx’ pulled off the first-ever calf slicer in octagon history.
Remarkably, it didn’t even take him too long. After taking Wisely down, he easily scrambled into back control, and from there, rather than hunt for a choke, he controlled his foe’s left leg instead.
For a moment it looked like he was setting up a kneebar, but incredibly, he sat up instead and yanked Wisely’s body backwards, with the left leg caught underneath. From there, he cranked back on the leg suddenly, putting huge pressure on it, and with nowhere to go and in sheer agony, Wisely instantly tapped.
The submission was both beautiful and brutal at the same time, and remains one of the more unique in UFC history, as well as one of Oliveira’s best.
#2. Charles Oliveira vs. Justin Gaethje – UFC 274
It’s arguable that Charles Oliveira’s best-ever win inside the octagon came against Justin Gaethje in the headliner of UFC 274, and so it stands to reason that the rear naked choke he won with would make this list.
The fight between ‘Do Bronx’ and ‘The Highlight’ had plenty of controversy surrounding it. Essentially, due to an issue with the scale used at the weigh-in, Oliveira failed to make weight, meaning that his title was vacated and only Gaethje could actually win it.
When it came to fight time, though, all of that went out of the window and both men fought in a reckless, insane manner that led to an all-time classic.
The fight lasted just over three minutes, but saw both men land early knockdowns. When Gaethje, renowned for his power punching, put Oliveira down, the fight looked like it was over.
Remarkably, though, ‘Do Bronx’ somehow recovered, clocked ‘The Highlight’ with a right hand, and as he went down, pounced and took his back. From there, Gaethje was too stunned to defend, and Oliveira wrapped him up in a textbook rear-naked choke to tap him out.
Sure, the win didn’t give Oliveira his title back, but there was no doubt as to who the true champion was when things were all said and done. More than anything else, the wildness of this fight marks it out as one of the Brazilian’s best submissions.
#1. Charles Oliveira vs. Dustin Poirier – UFC 269
While his win over Justin Gaethje came in a wilder and more entertaining fight, the submission win that really made Charles Oliveira came over Dustin Poirier some five months earlier.
Oliveira came into the fight as reigning UFC lightweight champion, but in truth, he hadn’t fully proven himself the best 155lber in the world.
He never beat the incumbent champ, Khabib Nurmagomedov, who retired and vacated his title, and his own title win came over Michael Chandler, who had just one octagon win to his name at the time.
Dustin Poirier, meanwhile, was riding high off the back of two wins over Conor McGregor and looked every bit the champion in the making.
When he faced off with ‘Do Bronx’, then, most fans expected ‘The Diamond’ to come out on top. Early on, that’s what appeared to be about to happen.
Poirier dropped Oliveira twice in a wild opening round, but the Brazilian got up both times and fired back, and as the stanza ended, he seemed to have ‘The Diamond’ on the back foot.
The second round, though, saw Oliveira turn things around entirely. He was able to get Poirier down and punished him with elbows, although he didn’t come close to a finish.
That came in the third round. With Poirier looking out of ideas, Oliveira rushed him, took his back in a scramble, and then jumped onto it like a backpack, hunting for a choke. Moments later, just as he’d done to Efrain Escudero in his second octagon appearance, ‘Do Bronx’ sunk the hold in and Poirier was forced to submit.
The win cemented Oliveira as the world’s top lightweight, but also stands as his best submission in the octagon. It wasn’t the flashiest, but given the level of opponent and nature of the fight, it has to sit at the top.