{"id":13414,"date":"2025-09-25T11:17:23","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T11:17:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thunderpick.gl\/blog\/?p=13414"},"modified":"2025-09-25T11:45:25","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T11:45:25","slug":"exclusive-interview-with-charles-oliveira-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thunderpick.gl\/blog\/exclusive-interview-with-charles-oliveira-part-2","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive interview with Charles Oliveira \u2013 part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

In the second part of our exclusive interview with Charles Oliveira<\/a>, the Brazilian lightweight legend shifts focus from his personal journey to analyzing the broader MMA landscape. “Do Bronx” shares his predictions for key upcoming matchups, including Islam Makhachev’s welterweight debut against Jack Della Maddalena, discusses the potential for cross-divisional superfights, and addresses criticism of his longtime training home at Chute Boxe following his loss to Ilia Topuria\u2014taking full responsibility for the defeat while defending his gym’s legacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Islam Makhachev keeps Jack Della Maddalena on the ground, he will be Welterweight champ<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charles Oliveira: Honestly, I think it\u2019s gonna be a great fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everyone already knows Islam\u2019s striking has improved a lot, but his main game is still to grab you and wrap you up. Jack Della Maddalena, for me, is a guy with sharp hands. He\u2019s not necessarily a one-punch knockout artist, but he breaks you down little by little. He showed that in his last fight\u2014stuffing takedowns, getting taken down, getting back up, just grinding it out. He could\u2019ve easily beaten Belal. It\u2019s a major clash of styles. If Islam manages to smother him and get the fight to the ground, he can win. But if he lets Jack move, strike, and chip away, then Jack definitely takes it. So it all comes down to timing. If Islam can neutralize him and get on top, he wins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Islam vs Ilia Topuria at welterweight would be awesome<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charles Oliveira: Man, it\u2019s wild. That\u2019s MMA – we\u2019re talking about a sport that\u2019s totally unpredictable. Topuria\u2019s been talking a lot about that. Like, if Islam wins, he\u2019ll move up. And honestly, who\u2019s to say he won\u2019t? It\u2019d be awesome to see. Let\u2019s just wait and see what happens next. Step one is Islam winning. Then we\u2019ll see if he actually moves up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Topuria beats Justin Gaethje<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charles Oliveira: Justin Gaethje and Topuria are both stand-up guys. They trade heavy, they throw hands, they move a lot. I think Topuria\u2019s got a real shot at winning. But man, MMA is crazy, you know? One day you\u2019re on fire, next day you\u2019re off. It\u2019s all about how you show up on the night. But yeah, I think Topuria can win. I actually think he will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chute Boxing gym wasn\u2019t to blame for Topuria loss – I am!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charles Oliveira: Man, honestly, this is a serious topic, and I say this with all due respect. People are always gonna talk; win or lose. That\u2019s just how it is. If you win, great. If you lose, they\u2019ll come for you with criticism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chute Boxe is a gym that\u2019s always moved forward. They\u2019ve always been willing to go toe-to-toe with anyone, straight up, or even pushing the pace. That\u2019s just how it\u2019s always been. They brought me into MMA. And what is MMA? It\u2019s the complete game. It\u2019s the mix of all martial arts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, at the end of the day, I just didn\u2019t do what I was supposed to do. I was supposed to move, strike, get out, shoot for takedowns. But I ended up staying still. That\u2019s on me. The blame isn\u2019t on Chute Boxe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alex Pereira will KO Ankalaev in rematch<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charles Oliveira: Man, for sure. That fight had to happen. Everybody knew it was coming. Honestly, in Alex\u2019s last fight, he waited a bit too much for the takedown attempts, and that\u2019s when he found the openings to land his hands.
I truly believe Poatan wins the rematch\u2014and I think he gets the knockout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alex Pereira vs Tom Aspinall would be an absolute war<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charles Oliveira: Man, Aspinall is a beast. He moves really well, has legit jiu-jitsu, and he\u2019s super active. I\u2019ve been seeing Pereira taking shots at him here and there\u2026
But honestly, I don\u2019t think the styles match up well for Poatan. It\u2019d be a really tough fight for him because of Aspinall\u2019s skill set. But man, I\u2019d love to see that fight. And of course, I\u2019d root for our Brazilian. No doubt it\u2019d be an absolute war.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the second part of our exclusive interview with Charles Oliveira, the Brazilian lightweight legend shifts focus from his personal journey to analyzing the broader MMA landscape. “Do Bronx” shares his predictions for key upcoming matchups, including Islam Makhachev’s welterweight debut against Jack Della Maddalena, discusses the potential for cross-divisional superfights, and addresses criticism of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13415,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[112],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderpick.gl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderpick.gl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderpick.gl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderpick.gl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderpick.gl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13414"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thunderpick.gl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13422,"href":"https:\/\/thunderpick.gl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13414\/revisions\/13422"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderpick.gl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderpick.gl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderpick.gl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderpick.gl\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}