Things have gotten a lot more difficult for Charles Oliveira over the past few days. Originally scheduled to rematch lightweight champion Islam Makhachev at UFC 294 last October, an injury forced the Brazilian to pull out of the bout barely ten days removed from the Abu Dhabi card. And now, he will have to face the promising lightweight prospect, the #4 ranked Arman Tsarukyan in an official no. l title contender bout at the UFC 300 megacard in April at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

The Georgia native recently knocked out another veteran, Beneil Dariush in less than two minutes at their UFC Fight Night main event bout last month. Ahead of this all-important bout, ‘Do Bronx’s coach has come out and accused the lightweight champion and pound-for-pound no. 1 fighter of being scared of facing Oliviera.

Oliveira’s coach claims Islam Makhachev is scared of fighting him

Islam Makhachev has made it abundantly clear time and time again after UFC 294 that he did not want to rematch Charles Oliveira as he had beaten him handily at their UFC 280 encounter and did not feel it was an exciting match-up. Instead, he prefers fighting Justin Gaethje as he feels it would be a more exciting match-up for fans. A few days ago, even his manager, Ali Abdelaziz also reiterated this sentiment.

Charles Oliveira’s manager and coach, Diego Lima, however, took this as Makhachev wanting to duck ‘Do Bronx’. The coach said thus revealed in a recent interview with ‘MMAFighting.com’ that he was convinced Islam Makhachev was ducking the Oliveira rematch and wanted out of the fight.

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“Makhachev is great, he’s the champion for a reason. The guy is really good and has all the merits, but I think it’s clear that he doesn’t want to fight Charles again. He wants out of this fight any way possible. It’s more than clear,” he added. However, fans were unanimously opposed to this interpretation of events and called out Lima for his comments.

Fans dismiss Lima’s claims

Fans were unconvinced that the reason Makhachev was hesitant to fight Oliveira was because he was scared of him and took to social media to let their thoughts known. Here is a sample of their comments.

One fan pointed out that when it was time to fight, Oliveira was the one who had pulled out:

“They literally had a fight booked and Oliveira pulled out. Am I missing something?”

Another felt Oliviera did not want to fight Tsarukyan and would injure himself, on purpose, if necessary to pull out:

“Charles Oliveira might potentially cut his eyebrows open with razor 🪒 to avoid Arman in 2 weeks prior “

Another thought Makhachev was not afraid but wanted a different challenge:

“I don’t think he’s afraid, he just want a new fighter in his resume, and Gaethje and Islam share the same manager so”

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One fan alluded to the fact that not only did Oliveira pull out of facing Makhachevm but that the champion had already announced he would face the winner of the UFC 300 title eliminator:

“Oliveira pulled out and Islam recently tweeted he wants to fight the winner of Oliveira and Tsarukyan after his fight against Gaethje.”

Another simply laughed his comments off:

“LMFAO”

One was utterly unconvinced and pointed out that Makhachev had defeated ‘Do Bronx’ and the pound-for-pound for king with ease:

“Bros forgetting Islam Ko’d a top PFP fighter in round one and dropped and submitted Charles with little resistance”

Another echoed this sentiment:

“Lmao he finished him with no problem why would he be scared”

Clearly, fans do not believe that Makhachev, who has said that he is ready to face any and every one the UFC puts in front of him and took on then P4P #1 ranked fighter Alexander Volkanovski on short notice, is trying to duck Charles Oliveira.

What do you think about Lima’s comments?

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