“I thought about quitting,” Charles Oliveira admits that he was pessimistic in his early career

UFC lightweight champion Charles Oliveira admits that he wanted to retire early in his career after the hardships he went through. The fighter from Favelas at a stage of his career didn’t have the courage to put everything in line and risk it but now Do Bronx is glad he held his nerve and became the ufc lightweight champion.

Charles Oliveira became the 11th lightweight champion in UFC after knocking out Michael Chandler, who also is a former Bellator champion in the second round of the vacant title bout at UFC 262. That fight was one of the craziest fights given Oliveira was down bad after Chandler rocked him in the first round. Charles then came back from losing the round, and then was crowned the lightweight champion.

Charles comes from the slums of Brazil and has always had a passion for MMA. The sacrifices the fighter must’ve made to become the champion are unimaginable. Recently he appeared in an interview with Super Lutas and spoke about his struggles coming up. “I have thought about quitting, in the very beginning,” Oliveira said. “Looking back, I see it was all worth it. to go through everything I went through in order to get where I am today. Everything I’ve been through, it’s summarized in what I ask everyone nowadays,” Do Bronx said.

“People say ‘I want to be a fighter. Are you willing to train? I ask them: ‘Are you willing to pay the price?’. It’s not a low price, it’s very high. When you’re nobody, you have to give up family time, friends, partying, women, everything. All for a dream. Just like I want it, there are two, three million people who also want it. When you start to shine, it bothers people. Unfortunately, that’s the bad side of human beings. When you start to bother them, people don’t want you to do well. It’s a painful price,” he continued in the interview.

“People used to say I would never make it,” Charles Oliveira discusses his journey

For all the sacrifices he made to become the UFC lightweight champion, Charles Oliveira was gifted with his labor fruits when he returned to Sao Paulo after his victory. “When we came back to Guaruja, (there was) a firetruck, thousands of people,” Oliveira said. “My mom would say, ‘There are so many people to take pictures with’. I’d tell her, ‘let them on (the truck)’. People hugging me, crying. There was an old lady who called me the new Ayrton Senna,” he spoke emotionally.

“Young people wanting to touch my belt. When I got home and my dad could touch my belt, it was like a movie played in my head. My dad telling me years ago that I was going to make it, that I was going to be a champion. Everything we’ve been through. People used to say I would never make it. I started to cry and remembered everything I went through to get here. Today, the gold is in our hands. It’s a mix of feelings.’”

Also read: How did Nate Diaz become a massive star without winning the UFC title

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