A little more than a month is left before one of the most anticipated confrontations of the outgoing year – on October 22, Charles Oliveira and Islam Makhachev will meet in the battle for the vacant UFC lightweight title. The promotion management was not impressed with the idea of ​​the Brazilian to hold the fight in his homeland and chose Abu Dhabi as convenient as possible for the Russian.

Oliveira criticized this decision, because of which it seemed to many that the Brazilian fighter could merge from the fight against the Dagestani. The famous ex-UFC champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, a close friend and coach of Makhachev, was also among the doubters.

However, should Orel make such statements? After all, he himself more than once in a strange way left the battles.

“I’m going to shut the mouth of Islam and Khabib”

After the news of the UFC decision to hold the UFC 280 tournament in the capital of the UAE, Oliveira did not stint on loud statements:

– I tried to arrange my next fight at home, but I never waited for their consent. The champion will fight on the opponent’s territory for the third time in a row. But, as I proved in the fight with Poirier and Gaethje, this is not a problem. When the cage closes, it’s just me and my opponent. I’m going to Abu Dhabi to shut the mouth of Islam and Khabib on their territory,” said the Brazilian.

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Indeed, the close geographical position of the United Arab Emirates and Russia compared to Brazil, as well as the support of Makhachev by local Muslim fans, do not play in Oliveira’s favor. Charles has repeatedly shown strong-willed qualities in his fights, but Habib decided to doubt the courage of the Brazilian:

– I think that Charles Oliveira will not appear in Abu Dhabi, and the UFC will replace him with Benil Dariush. Regardless of who will be the opponent, Islam Makhachev is on his way to becoming the best in the world at UFC 280, Nurmagomedov said.

Whether the Brazilian will fly to Abu Dhabi to fight with Makhachev or not will become known soon, however, such an unfounded statement from Khabib looks pretty funny, given the number of fights from which the Russian fighter “flew” during his career.

Khabib himself “did not appear” many times

In addition to refusals from fights due to injuries, Nurmagomedov did not enter the cage because of his own mistakes in preparation. The loudest episode was in March 2017, when the UFC tried for the third time to organize a fight between Khabib and Tony Ferguson. At the final stage of the weight cut, the Dagestan athlete felt unwell and was hospitalized, as a result of which the fight was canceled.

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Fighters have problems with weight loss, sometimes the body cannot withstand extreme weight loss and fails. However, after the news of the failure of the fight, Ferguson accused Khabib of unprofessionalism. According to him, just a couple of days before the fight, Nurmagomedov ate tiramisu cake in a cafe, neglecting his diet. The Russian denied the information of his opponent, but later a video of Khabib with dessert appeared on the Web. After that, the UFC tried to reschedule the fight to the fall, but Orel twice insisted on postponing the bout to a later date, which is why the head of the promotion, Dana White, replaced him with Kevin Lee.

A few years later, White tried to organize a fight between Khabib and Tony for the fifth time (Ferguson was injured on the fourth attempt), but the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic made its adjustments. The fight was on the verge of failure, but it was the Russian who had flown to the Emirates from the USA, where the border was already closed at that time, ruined all the chances for a duel. Nurmagomedov returned to his homeland and said that he was not going to fly back to the States, putting himself and his team at risk. The fight was canceled again.

In addition to these cases, Khabib was noted for three strange refusals from fights with peak Donald Cerrone: Nurmagomedov complained about Ramadan and twice about a knee injury, while not wanting to postpone fights with the American at a later date. The UFC also offered the Russian a fight with Jose Aldo, who agreed to the fight, but Khabib decided to refuse this opportunity, saying that he “does not beat the little ones.”

Therefore, groundless accusations against Oliveira look unfounded and strange. Especially from the lips of Khabib.