The UFC 280 tournament in Abu Dhabi has aroused great interest among mixed martial arts fans around the world. The clash of Charles Oliveira and Islam Makhachev in the main battle of the main card of the event is by far the most anticipated confrontation of this year.

Before the fight, many fans and experts have already made predictions. Islam has its own version of who will hold the lightweight title after this fight.

Again, there was no undressing

The last day before UFC 280 was very eventful for all the card fighters. The athletes started with the weigh-in procedure, which received a lot of attention due to Charles Oliveira’s previous misfire before the fight with Justin Gaethje. Then the Brazilian was heavier to the upper limit of light weight by only 200 grams.

This time, Oliveira did not ruffle the nerves of his fans and fit into the weight category five hours before the official weigh-in, however, he again could not do without taking off his underwear. The fighter himself was as serious as possible at that moment, but his large retinue was glad that Charles had regained the championship belt, which he parted with due to being overweight. The team screamed and clapped while hugging the Brazilian.

Photo: © Chris Unger / Contributor / UFC / Gettyimages.com

Islam Makhachev also had no problems with being overweight. At the official weigh-in procedure, the host of the event announced that the weight of both athletes was 70.08 kg, which fits comfortably into the limits. After that, the last battle of views before the fight was arranged for the opponents, which did without excesses. The rivals shook hands and got so close that they even rested their noses against each other.

“I will knock out Islam in the first round”

After the end of the many months of chasing the right weight, the athletes relaxed a little and began to give out sparkling interviews, further fueling the public’s interest in the upcoming fight.

In an interview with Daniel Cormier, Oliveira accused the Russian fighter and his entire team of disrespect. The Brazilian really did not like the way Islam and Khabib presented this fight to their audience on social networks. Charles also gave a very optimistic forecast for the fight.

– I’ll do my job. I will knock out Islam in the first round. I say this as a lion who is always hunting. He will try to keep close range and try to keep me, but that’s all he can, — said the Brazilian.

Islam, in a conversation with Cormier, admitted that this time he did not experience many problems with the weight cut, he did not even need to sit in the sauna before weighing. In many ways, this was facilitated by a busy training camp with Khabib.

– All Oliveira’s opponents were afraid to take the fight to the ground, so he put pressure on each opponent. But when our fight starts, and he tries to put pressure on me, I will transfer him to the ground and win there, ”Makhachev spoke about the tactics for the fight.

Islam Makhachev / Photo: © Mike Roach / Contributor / UFC / Gettyimages.com

Both fighters in the interview were friendly and often smiled, which is understandable, the difficult preparatory period was left behind, and the most anticipated fight of recent times among mixed martial arts fans is ahead. Dana White spoke about the huge interest of the public in this confrontation.

“This is an amazing card, people are buzzing about it all over the world. And he’s already doing great sales. By Sunday or Monday, he was already selling better than Khabib vs Gaethje. On social media, he also just breaks. I’ll tell you this, there’s a big college football game tomorrow, Iowa vs. Ohio University, it’s a huge event in the US. And they will show during the game on the screen the arrival of O’Malley and Ian to the arena and other fighters of the main card, BT Sport quotes White.

The lightweight championship belt has been vacant for the last few hours. Although Islam had not yet become a champion, despite ten consecutive UFC victories, he found a way to try on the title, which ended up lying unattended on the table. The Russian took it and put it on his shoulder, posing with a satisfied face in front of the cameras and patting the prestigious award. At the same time, Makhachev showed with all his appearance that the championship suits him.

Let’s see if the Russian fighter will be able to try on the lightweight championship belt again after the end of the fight with Oliveira.