PHOENIX — Charles Oliveira took Justin Gaethje’s best and dished it right back in his effort to reclaim his lightweight title.
In a hellacious opening round, a bloody Oliveira survived a knockdown and answered with one of his own, leading to a rear-naked choke submission victory in the UFC 274 main event Saturday in Footprint Center.
Oliveira (33-8, 1 NC) came into the main event on a 10-fight winning streak but lost the belt Friday morning after three failed attempts to weigh in at 155 pounds.
A mere eight ounces forced Oliveira, 32, to vacate the title and forfeit an undisclosed percentage of his purse. On top of that, the Brazilian star was declared ineligible to win the title Saturday night, instead becoming the No. 1 contender for the vacant title and “fight the next challenger for the undisputed title belt at a time and place to be determined,” the UFC said in a statement Friday.
Early on, it looked like Gaethje (24-4) would take care of that, swinging wildly in typical Gaethje fashion, willing to trade and bang. He knocked the former champ down early and even opened a cut over his left eye.
Gaethje, born and raised in Safford, Arizona, roughly 165 miles east of Phoenix, was a crowd favorite through and through, but the fans fell quiet when Oliveira knocked him down and pounced on the former interim lightweight champion.
No one has finished more fights in the UFC and finished them via submission than Oliveira. His finish Saturday was the 19th of his stellar UFC career and 16th via submission.
Once Oliveira had Gaethje’s back and his legs hooked around his waist, he stretched the challenger out and sunk in the choke, with referee Marc Goddard calling the fight at 3:20 of the first round.
Gaethje, 33, came in a winner of five of his past six, the lone loss via a second-round triangle choke in lightweight legend Khabib Nurmagomedov’s retirement fight in October 2020.
A wild and as-expected classic against Michael Chandler in November vaulted Gaethje to the front of the line to challenge Oliveira.
Chandler thrust himself into the 155-pound championship conversation earlier Saturday with a stunning front-kick knockout of Tony Ferguson.
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Though both called out Irish former two-division superstar Conor McGregor in victory, Chandler and Oliveira could wind up squaring off for the vacant title for a second time.
After undefeated champion Khabib Nurmagomedov retired and relinquished the belt in March 2021, Oliveira fought for the vacant belt two months later and recorded a second-round knockout of Chandler at UFC 262 on May 15 in Houston.