Charles Oliveira reacts to leaked BMF title fight date: ‘Calm down!’

Charles Oliveira may be focused on winning back his lightweight title, but he’s happy to use the BMF belt as a means to get there.

Oliveira earned a dominant win over Mateusz Gamrot at UFC Rio in November, silencing doubters that thought he was returning to quickly after a brutal KO loss to Ilia Topuria at the end of June. After that victory he called for a fight against BMF title holder Max Holloway, and everyone agrees that this is the match to make.

The bout was announced for UFC 324 on the promotion’s official UFC Brasil social media account and then deleted. Oliveira took to social media following that urging calm from his fans.

“The fight won’t be in January, but the fight will happen,” he said. “I want it, he wants it, you want it. I believe this fight will happen in March or April.”

“I’m here to make history and, for sure, winning the BMF would be huge for my legacy,” Oliveira said of the matchup (via Ag Fight). “But I want to become champion. I’ve been very far from it, but today, I’m so close. I’m one or two fights away from it. I’m second in the ranking.”

Oliveira believes a win over Holloway jumps him right to the front of the line.

“I think I have one more fight to be able to compete for the title again,” he said. “If I win, and win well, if that fight is against Max Holloway for BMF, that breaks the bubble again. There’s a lot that can happen.”

Oliveira would normally be right: a high profile BMF win would usually put you right back into talk for another lightweight title shot. But there’s a growing logjam at the top of lightweight now that champion Ilia Topuria is taking time off to deal with personal issues.

Paddy Pimblett and Justin Gaethje are set to fight in January for an interim title, which means there will be a unification bout after that. And then there’s No. 1 ranked lightweight Arman Tsarukyan out there too.

But so long as we get the fights we want to see, we can ignore the issues at the top of the division. Oliveira vs. Holloway is a fight we desperately want to see, and all signs point towards it happening in the first quarter of 2026. What happens after that? Who knows. Oliveira vs. Tsarukyan 2, anyone?