Charles Oliviera walked into the octagon at UFC 274 without the lightweight title.
A weight miss of a half-pound left Oliveira without the belt for his second scheduled title defense in the headliner of the May 7 pay-per-view event in Phoenix. That meant only Justin Gaethje could claim the title if he won their five-round fight. But the Brazilian showed he was not ready to give up the throne, even if he couldn’t technically claim it.
Oliveira survived Gaethje’s best attacks in the first round, getting dropped by a punch before recovering to put the two-time lightweight title challenger to sleep with a rear-naked choke.
As Oliveira gets ready to fight for the vacant lightweight title against No. 1 contender Islam Makhachev at UFC 280, check out the full video of his UFC 274 fight with Justin Gaethe, courtesy of the UFC.
The full video can be seen above.
