“The only fight before which I said all sorts of de***ing things was the fight with Islam Makhachev,” MMA Fighting quoted the Brazilian as saying. “I made a mistake, and I won’t make it again. Once you make a mistake, you can’t make it a second time, otherwise you’re going to go downhill without stopping. I’m not going to do that.”
“If you watch all my fights, you’ll see that I didn’t fight to even ten percent of my capabilities that night. That won’t be seen by the haters and the analysts who are always talking de**k, but people who really know about fights will know what I’m talking about. If you listen to what I say before all my fights, there was only one where I went outside the norm and that was the fight against Islam. I won’t make that mistake again.”
“A lot of people say I need to work on the mental aspect to fight and win in Abu Dhabi. A lot of people say I’m not ready for the fight. I recently re-watched a video of Michael Chandler, Dustin Porier, Justin Gaethje, and Benil Dariush saying they’re going to beat me, and you all saw what happened. There’s no point in this talk – I’ll do this, I’ll do that… Just let it go the way it is. I want to be myself on Oct. 21 and be around people close to me who really love me.”
As a reminder, the title fight between Islam Makhachev and Charles Oliveira, in which the Russian will defend the lightweight championship belt, will headline UFC 294 in Abu Dhabi on October 21.