UFC 262 Aftermath: The Excitement of Uncertainty
Charles Oliveira is the new lightweight champion, and just might be the best lightweight in the world
Charles Oliveira’s road to the UFC lightweight title was the longest of anyone in the history of the organization, as the Brazilian claimed gold in his 28th appearance inside the Octagon on Saturday night, closing out a frantic championship fight with Michael Chandler just 19 seconds into the second round to secure the title.
He went 3,941 days from his debut to his coronation, amassing more submission victories and more finishes than anyone else in UFC history along the way, adding Chandler’s name to a list of vanquished foes that includes Tony Ferguson, Kevin Lee, David Teymur, and Jim Miller during his current winning streak, which now sits at nine and counting.
A big part of what makes Saturday’s final outcome so heartwarming to all those watching and taking in the news is that for the longest time, Oliveira didn’t look like he would ever reach this point.
He looked like an ultra-talented fighter who was destined to come up short; a guy who curiously held on to featherweight ambitions when he struggled to make the weight and who folded at the first sign of trouble. He was one win above .500 through the first 19 fights of his UFC career, but he’s batting 1.000 since, and showed this weekend that he’s remedied some of those issues that plagued him earlier in his career as well.
Very early in the fight, Chandler landed a left hand that cut Oliveira and had him backing up. He landed another once he finally freed himself from Oliveira’s clutches on the canvas and seemed poised to finish the fight in the opening round. It looked like the Oliveira of old may make an appearance, as Chandler rained down blows, trying desperately to get the Brazilian out of there.
He failed, and after a 60-second break in his corner, Oliveira came out firing, charging across the Octagon and clipping Chandler with a right hand that began the finishing sequence. The guy that used to look for exits weathered the storm and then unleashed one of his own, and while he still, inexplicably, said he would welcome a trip down to featherweight if given the opportunity to challenge for gold there, UFC 262 goes down as the night Oliveira fulfilled his promise and put everything together to stand atop the UFC lightweight division.
And now comes the really fun part.
There was a lot of talk heading into the event that no matter the outcome, the individual leaving Houston, Texas with the lightweight title in their carry-on wasn’t the top lightweight in the organization.
Most feel that honor belongs to Dustin Poirier, who passed up a title shot to run it back with Conor McGregor one more time later this year. Some feel like Justin Gaethje, who claimed the interim title this time last year and was the first man to make Tony Ferguson look like a mere mortal before becoming the 29th and final victim of Khabib Nurmagomedov last October, should be ahead of this weekend’s victor as well.
A small, but obnoxiously loyal group of sycophants would argue the former champion McGregor could be considered ahead of the new champion as well, though that case is far more difficult to make given that he’s 0-2 in his last two lightweight appearances and just 6-3 in the division as a whole.
But following his victory on Saturday night, Oliveira’s case for being the top man in the 155-pound weight class certainly became stronger.
Given how things transpired on Saturday evening at Toyota Center, proclaiming with absolute certainty that “do Bronx” is not the best lightweight in the UFC feels foolhardy — he’s won nine straight, with eight stoppages, against increasingly dangerous competition, in the one of the deepest, most competitive divisions in the sport. He just showed that he’s shaken most, if not all of those negative elements everyone long believed he couldn't possibly overcome, and he didn’t in the biggest fight of his career, without flinching.
While you can still make a quality case for Poirier and/or Gaethje, you can’t dismiss Oliveira nearly as easily as you might have before Saturday night. Although he’s been installed as the underdog in prospective matchups with Poirier and McGregor, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more appealing live dog than the current lightweight champion, who is younger, fresher, and a more complete fighter than either of those men, and Gaethje for that matter.
Oliveira has a preposterous 90-percent finishing rate for his career and only two victories on the scorecards from 19 UFC wins, and while that skews heavily in favor of submissions (14-3), those three T/KO wins have come in his last five fights, which makes it seems like the new champion is starting to get real comfortable and confident with his striking as well.
What’s great about all this is that we’re going to get a definitive answer over the next 12-18 months.
Oliveira is going to face the Poirier-McGregor winner, and could very well face Gaethje too, before or after, depending on how things shake out.
Saturday night was never meant to provide a conclusive answer to the question “Who is the best lightweight in the UFC?” — it was meant to clarify things just a little, while ratcheting up the excitement for what’s still to come, and the way things played out did just that.
Support for and belief in Oliveira has never been stronger, and the future matchup possibilities available to him as champion have never been more appealing.
A bout with any of the three top contenders is a guaranteed must-see attraction filled with exhilarating potential, and whomever wins would likely still have their next bout all lined up, and it too would be a must-see attraction filled with exhilarating potential.
Eventually, we’ll get a definitive answer about the best lightweight in the UFC, but right now, the uncertainty is what makes all of this so compelling.
As much as no one would have believed you last May when the UFC resumed its 2020 campaign if you told them that a year later, Charles Oliveira would earn a comeback stoppage victory over Michael Chandler to claim the vacant lightweight title, that’s kind of the point.
For years, critics, fans, and observers have moaned about dominant champions facing overmatched challengers and pay-per-view title fights that felt like a fait accompli, and then usual played out as such, but now we have a lightweight division that is unsettled and wide open at the top, with four men jockeying to lay claim to the throne and a whole host of talented hopefuls climbing the ranks, nipping at their heels, eager to prove they belong in the discussion as well.
This is how things were always going to shape up coming out of UFC 262 and it’s honestly better than having a clear, undisputed champion sitting atop the lightweight throne right now.
The next 12-18 months in the 155-pound ranks promise to be one of the most competitive, exciting stretches in UFC history, regardless of weight class.
We’re eventually going to reach a point where there is once again a lone individual standing above the rest, established as the top man in the lightweight division, but how we get there is the part that is most interesting.
Charles Oliveira is the new UFC lightweight champion.
Is he the best lightweight in the division?
I’m not sure, but I sure can’t wait to find out.