Former UFC Lightweight Champion Eyes His Road Back To Gold
By Evelyn Rodrigues and Vinicius Giglio • Jan. 21, 2025
Former UFC lightweight champion Charles Oliveira flew all the way from Sao Paulo to Inglewood to watch closely what he expected to be a matchup between the two last fighters to beat him in the Octagon - Islam Makhachev and Arman Tsarukyan - with the 155-pound title on the line.
After a dramatic turn of events on UFC 311's eve, Tsarukyan was ruled out of the contest due to back issues and replaced by Renato Moicano - who was scheduled to fight Beneil Dariush on the card, and ended up being submitted by Makhachev in the first round for the Russian's fourth title defense, a divisional record.