Charles Oliveira calls out Kevin Lee for UFC Miami clash

By Lucas Rezende @rezenluc

Charles Oliveira meant it when he said he would expect a top-5 ranked fighter if he defeated David Teymur at UFC Fortaleza.

Now that he is on a four-fight winning streak, with all victories coming by way of submission, ‘Do Bronx’ believes he did enough to warrant a name in the higher echelon of the lightweight division.

Already with a place and a name in mind, Oliveira took no time to call out fellow grappler Kevin Lee for an April 27th bout at UFC Miami, which he believes to be a good match-up for himself.

“I want to fight in the top-5 of my division.” Charles told Combate. “I think Kevin Lee is the only top-5 guy without a fight already booked. If he wants to fight, it can be anywhere. If it’s in April, even better. I’m as ready standing up as I am on the ground, it’s going to be a war. He likes to take it to the ground, so it’s going to be a war. If the UFC books this fight, I’m ready.”

Although Charles finished his last fight via submission, like he usually does, it was an upwards elbow to the chin of David Teymur that rocked his opponent enough for Oliveira to sink in the fight-ending anaconda choke. According to Oliveira, many people claim he scored a lucky shot, but the 29-year-old firmly asserts that he was prepared and trained to land that strike.

“I’ll spend my entire life saying I trained for that and nobody will believe me,” Oliveira said. “I train all the time. I tried two spinning backfists to one side, but my coaches told me ‘he’s on to that, go the other way’. So I threw a little faint and threw the elbow, we did that in the locker room. Diego (Oliveira’s coach), yelled ‘Anderson Silva’s elbow!’. My striking has come a long way thanks to him. I’m super happy.”

The winning streak of Charles Oliveira (26-8-1 NC) includes submission wins over the likes of Clay Guida, Christos Giagos, Jim Miller and most recently Teymur. He hasn’t lost since a TKO defeat to Paul Felder back in December 2017.