Failing to ever summit the pound-for-pound rankings, Charles Oliveira believes a certain UFC 320 star should find himself atop that list already.
Putting his future title aspirations on the line this weekend, Charles Oliveira returns just north of 100 days removed from his hellacious knockout loss to Ilia Topuria in the pair’s lightweight title clash earlier this summer.
Returning to home soil to headline UFC Rio, former divisional kingpin Oliveira will tackle impromptu foe Mateusz Gamrot in a reworked main event clash.
However, looking to follow in recent success from compatriot Alex Pereira, Sao Paulo megastar Oliveira believes another victor from last week’s UFC 320 has been the victim of a disservice.
Charles Oliveira claims Merab Dvalishvili is the best UFC fighter right now
Making a sizable leap in the pound-for-pound rankings off the back of his knockout win over Magomed Ankalaev, Oliveira’s countryman Pereira is yet to top the promotion’s rankings.
However, as far as the promotion’s most prolific submission ace and outright finisher is concerned, UFC 320 co-headliner Merab Dvalishvili is the rightful owner of the number one ranking in the pile.
“The guy who has been doing a great job out there, who I really like to watch is Merab (Dvalishvili),” Oliveira told TNT Sports when asked for his pick of the best UFC fighter in the promotion right now.
And during that Q&A session, too, Oliveira also boldly declared himself as the best Brazilian fighter to ever compete in the Octagon, and the proud owner of the best submission win in history, courtesy of his history-making stoppage years ago.
Merab Dvalishvili linked with clash against ex-pound-for-pound leader
With plans to fight as soon as December after his dominant win over title challenger Cory Sandhagen over the weekend, Dvalishvili has been vocal about his active future.
Linked with a host of defenses of his bantamweight crown in a bid to set a new divisional record, Dvalishvili has been mentioned as a foe for both Umar Nurmagomedov and Petr Yan.
However, his head coach has played up a super fight a division higher against a former pound-for-pound pacesetter before too long.