The threat of Islam Makhachev's wrestling for Charles Oliveira was tackled by intensifying Coach Alireza's role, reveals Diego Lima– "It was the missing piece in Brazil and in our team"
Charles Oliveira's head coach Diego Lima recently revealed how the former lightweight champ is preparing to tackle Islam Makhachev's wrestling prowess in their upcoming bout at UFC 280.
Makhachev is known for his outstanding Sambo-style wrestling. Many even consider the 31-year-old Dagestani fighter a better "pure wrestler" than UFC Hall of Famer Khabib Nurmagomedov.
In an episode of UFC 280 Embedded, Diego Lima stated that Charles Oliveira is honing his wrestling techniques with esteemed Iranian wrestler Alireza Noei. Lima detailed how training with Noei has been a "difference maker" in Oliveira's training strategy for UFC 280:
"We know Makhachev has good wrestling and Charles was already doing it more in his previous fights. But for this fight we didn't replace anything, we just added. Ali [Alireza Noei] is a wrestler who has been with us for a while now and for this fight we intensified this aspect of training. He is able to bring to us everything he has from wrestling to the MMA game. To be able to train with him has been a difference maker. It was the missing piece in Brazil and in our team."
You can check out the full episode of UFC 280 Embedded below:
Diego Lima opens up about Charles Oliveira's weight miss at UFC 274
Charles Oliveira was scheduled to make his second title defense against Justin Gaethje at the main event of UFC 274. However, things failed to go as planned after 'do Bronx' missed weight by half a pound. Subsequently, the Brazilian was stripped of his title. The unfazed Oliveira went on to submit Gaethje via rear-naked choke in the first round.
In the UFC 280 Countdown uploaded to the UFC's YouTube channel, Charles Oliveira's head coach Diego Lima can be seen reflecting on his fighter's weight miss. He stated that Oliveira had made weight the night before the weign-ins, begging the question of whether the scale was to blame:
"We made the weight and went to bed making it. We posted it on our stories. It was very weird when we woke up and he was over weight."
During the video, 'do Bronx' also opened up about the incident and said:
"They took my belt because of half a pound. I don't give a f*** what they think. I'm going to keep making history. I'm going for another title defense. I'm not going [to UFC 280] to win a title back. I'm going to defend it. Nobody can take that out of my head."
You can check out the UFC 280 Countdown below:
After various weight miss fiascos at UFC 274, many fighters had alleged that the scale was faulty: