UFC on Versus 5 – Charles Oliveira predicts Donald Cerrone won’t want to go to the ground with him

UFC lightweight wizz-kid, Charles Oliveira has been giving his first thoughts on stepping up at short notice to take on former WEC title contender, Donald Cerrone on the UFC on Versus 5 card next month in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, predicting the man dubbed “Cowboy” will want no part of his ground game inside the octagon.

Speaking via Tatame Magazine, Oliveira said:

“I don’t like choosing opponent and I’ll fight whoever UFC wants me to. When they offered me Lauzon I said ‘ok’, and now they replaced him, so it’s the same to me, a fight is a fight and I can’t waste time picking up my opponents. I was taking some time off, but now I’ll train again for this bout. I know he’s a really tough cowboy, so I have to be strong to be successful while representing Brazil. He’s a great striker and a good submitter too, so it’s a good fight for me. Many point out this as the most tough fight for me and they’re curious about the way I’ll behave, but I’ll be the same thing, I’ll get in there knowing I can be knocked out or finished and so do he, but I’m pretty confident mainly on my striking because I’m getting a lot better and I hope to bring a great win to Brazil.”

“All guy I’ve fought were pretty tough, good. Jim Miller was a pretty tough guy and unfortunately he beat me up, Escudero was in his best shape and I submitted him, so I guess it just gets tougher and tougher and Cerrone is another tough guy, so I have to focus for another challenge and work on his flaws and also on what he’s good at, which is being explosive and having good timing. Before people thought I could only take people down, but know they know they can be knocked down or knocked out, I’m getting more and more complete each day and that’s another hard fight for me.”

“I guess he’ll strike with me, I don’t believe he’ll take me down. Most guys I fight doesn’t want to take me down and when they actually do so, they only want to use their ground and pound, because they know I have a dynamic Jiu-Jitsu. It’s a good match-up for me. If he takes me down, we’ll fight there and if he wants to trade punches with me I’m cool with that too. Everybody could tell I’m getting better at it.”

Oliveira is coming off a rather controversial no-contest result against Nik Lentz just last month, kneeing the powerhouse in the face during the second round before choking him out. He had been expected to take on Joe Lauzon on the UFC 138 card later in the year. Stay tuned to MMABay in the coming weeks for more build-up to this one as we get it.
By Michael Pepper.