Dana White had something to say about a rematch between Charles Oliveira and Islam Makhachev after the former's impressive first-round TKO win at UFC 289.
After eight months of absence since his loss to Makhachev, the Brazilian fighter raised eyebrows and set Twitter ablaze after defeating top lightweight contender Beneil Dariush in convincing fashion in the co-main event of UFC 289. Oliveira needed just a little over four minutes to finish his opponent on Saturday night. Dariush withstood a lot of punishment from Oliveira's myriad punches, but in the end, the American ended up losing by virtue of a technical knockout.
Islam Makhachev took to Twitter to congratulate Charles Oliveira on his fiery knockout, but also reminded him that there is still only one to beat:
“Congrats Charles,” the defending champ wrote. “But still there’s levels in this game.”
The once-beaten Makhachev made his first lightweight title defense by turning away featherweight champion Alex Volkanovski earlier this year in Perth. The performance earned the Dagestani bruiser a summer vacation with a tentative return scheduled for the upcoming fall card in Abu Dhabi.
Before the beginning of UFC 289, Dana White was asked about who would be Makhachev's next opponent, and if the winner of the Oliveira-Dariush fight deserves a title shot.
“I have no idea,” White said at the UFC 289 pre-fight press conference when asked about the title implications of his co-main event. “We’ll see how the fight goes on Saturday. But yeah, it obviously makes a lot of sense. Right here, right now, makes a lot of sense. We’ll see what happens.”
And after this fight, if there's any more doubt as to who should be Islam Makhachev's next challenger, there shouldn't be anymore:
“Let's not play games, that fight makes sense, that's the fight that should happen, and I'm excited to see it again,” White said during the UFC 289 post-fight press conference.
Oliveira-Makhachev 2 is happening.
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