“Go for the money” – Charles Oliveira advised to take up the money fight against Conor McGregor
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Charles Oliviera(L), Conor McGregor(R)
Charles Oliveira entered the new year as champion of the UFC lightweight division after he submitted Dustin Poirier via rear-naked choke at UFC 269 in the third round of the main event.
Fans now wonder who will be Oliveira’s next opponent as he defends his title for the second time and two names immediately popping in to everyone’s mind are Conor McGregor and Justin Gaethje.
In an ideal situation, Justin Gaethje deserves the title shot as he is currently the highest-ranked 155er in the division after the Brazilian. However, McGregor carries with him a huge PPV bout and payday and not to mention publicity and sold-out arenas and the champion is well aware of this.
‘Do Bronx’ even took to Instagram asking his vans to vote for whom would they like to see him fight. Sharing a picture of ‘The Notorious’ and ‘The Highlight’ he wrote, “Let’s start the year with this poll, who would you like to see fight with me.”
It would be unfair to Gaethje if he was snubbed to give the Irishman a chance at the title as Conor is 1-3 within the lightweight division.
With the world choosing for Oliveira between the two, Javier Mendez, head coach of the American Kickboxing Academy (AKA) and former coach of Khabib Nurmagomedov advised Oliviera to pick McGregor over Gaethje as he said in an interview with Helen Yee Sports, “Go for the money. Probably a fight with Conor McGregor.”
Javier Mendez asks Charles Oliveira to be business-minded while picking his next opponent
Charles Oliveira is yet to decide on who he is willing to give a chance at the title and the two frontrunners are Justin Gaethje and Conor McGregor.
However, Javier Mendez had his say on who Oliveira needed to pick and he said, “Go for the money.”
“The UFC is a business, they’re going to do what they’re going to do, so I would think that look what Dustin did – he went for the money. So, a lot of these fighters have attended a certain status, they show their worth by what they do, they go for the money whereas other fighters show their status by where their heart lies. They go for the title so in this particular case I’m thinking, since you already has the title, he’s going for the money.”
Mendez did mention that whoever Oliveira picked, the one he feels who deserves the next shot should be the winner of Islam Makhachev and Beneil Dariush.
“By win percentage, the winner of Islam and Beneil should fight Charles Oliveira. It shouldn’t be anybody else, because they can get more eyeballs to screen but in the promotion business it’s about who can bring the most money, we have seen it too many times. So, this is a business first.”
Oliveira had said that he would like his next fight to be somewhere in April so until then, the man from Brazil can rest assured that he is still the champ.
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Nimish Ganapathy
(135 Articles Published)