UFC 264 Aftermath: The Right Guys Ruling at Lightweight
The future championship clash between Charles Oliveira and Dustin Poirier features the two best lightweights in the UFC and two men who paid their dues inside the Octagon
The next time the UFC lightweight title is up for grabs, the two best fighters in the division will be standing across the Octagon from one another, poised to lock horns in the matchup that made the most sense on paper back in January when all the work to navigate the crowded top tier of the 155-pound weight class got underway.
When Dustin Poirier collected a second-round stoppage win over Conor McGregor to close out UFC 257 in January, he cemented his standing as the top talented in the division, giving himself seven wins in his last nine appearances; the only setback a loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov, who abdicated the throne a few months earlier, walking away with a pristine 29-0 record.
The second position on the podium was up for grabs, with several people having valid cases for claiming the spot, including Nurmagomedov’s final victim, Justin Gaethje, UFC newcomer and multiple-time Bellator titleholder Michael Chandler, who knocked out Dan Hooker in his debut prior to Poirier’s win over McGregor on Fight Island, and Charles Oliveira, the gangly finisher who pushed his winning streak to eight with a lopsided decision win over Tony Ferguson in December.
In terms of strength of schedule and overall resume in the UFC, it was hard to deny Oliveira, who debuted in the Octagon as a 20-year-old prospect, struggled with inconsistency, weight issues, and a noticeable tendency to look for an exit when things got tough before settling in at lightweight and rattling off finish after finish… after finish… after finish… after finish… after finish… after finish before finally going the distance with Ferguson on the final pay-per-view of 2020.
Sure, Chandler had excelled under the Bellator banner and you couldn’t fault Gaethje for losing to Nurmagomedov, plus he was the one to halt Ferguson’s lengthy winning streak back in May, but eight consecutive victories is difficult to disregard, and if you were picking simply based on who had done the most work to earn a shot at championship gold, Oliveira felt like the most deserving of the bunch, even if he were the least marketable, least popular of the potential Poirier opponents.
None of that ended up mattering.
Poirier opted to face McGregor for a third time, betting that he could secure a massive payday, beat the Irish superstar for a second time in 2021, and still close out the year fighting for the belt. Oliveira and Chandler were selected to battle one another for the vacant title, and positioned as the main event at UFC 262 in Houston, Texas; Gaethje was the odd man out.
Now, six months later, Oliveira and Poirier are on course to meet later this year for the UFC lightweight title, after the latter wrapped up a 2-1 series win over McGregor in the rubber match of their rivalry Saturday night at UFC 264.
It just feels right.
For the last couple years, these have been the two most consistent, most successful fighters in the division — Oliveira pushing his winning streak to nine by stopping Chandler in the second-round of their all-action championship clash in May; Poirier cementing his place as “The People’s Champion” by defeated McGregor for a second time this year and continuing to be a class act in the face of increasingly hostile and repugnant comments from the scrambling Irish superstar.
In a sport where the most deserving fighters seldom get what they deserve, these two each deserved a chance to challenge for the right to be call the undisputed UFC lightweight champion, and by the time the year is out, one of them will stand atop the division, recognized as exactly that.
Along with being the most deserving competitors in the division, Oliveira and Poirier are tandem examples of the power of perseverance and the potential for athletes in this sport to pick themselves back up, continue to develop their skills and understanding of themselves, and reach new heights later in their careers.
Between them, they have made 54 appearances inside the Octagon, suffering 13 combined losses and having two bouts end in No Contest verdicts.
Several of those defeats came in high profile matchups, the kind of bouts that would have elevated them to another level in their careers. For a while, neither could get over that hump, as strong outings were sometimes followed by difficult to understand defeats that made you wonder if they would ever put everything together consistently enough to challenge for championship gold.
They’ve each changed divisions — Oliveira going from lightweight to featherweight and back, while Poirier started in the 145-pound ranks and moved up 10 pounds following his loss to McGregor in their first encounter at UFC 174.
Neither was forecasted to reach this point when they committed themselves to competing in the lightweight division; there were too many ultra-talented fighters ahead of them, too many hellish matchups they would have to navigate just to reach contention, and then a couple even more challenging assignments to complete just to stand opposite the champion.
Oliveira won his first fight back at 155-pounds, submitting Will Brooks at UFC 210 in Buffalo, but lost his next outings against Paul Felder, succumbing to a series of elbows late in the second round. It felt familiar — a brilliant finish chased by a disappointing defeated — and seemed destined to remain a recurring theme in the Brazilian’s career.
Poirier ripped off four wins in 14 months upon relocating to a higher weight class, earning first-round finishes of Diego Ferreira, Yancy Medeiros, and Bobby Green, with a lopsided decision win over Joseph Duffy stationed between those last two stoppages for good measure. He was ascending and booked into a main event bout against Michael Johnson, the mercurial former TUF finalist who got slap-boxed by Nathan Diaz on FOX nine months earlier.
It felt like a showcase opportunity for Poirier.
He lost in 95 seconds, eating a counter right hook with a left hand behind it that put him on the deck in a hurry, with Johnson chasing him to the floor and securing the finish. Just like Oliveira’s lost to Felder a year and change later, there was a familiar vibe to the defeat — a major opportunity missed — and you kind of wondered if “The Diamond” would ever become a bonafide contender.
Poirier wouldn’t lose again until entering the cage against Nurmagomedov at UFC 242, arriving as the interim lightweight champion after outlasting and outworking featherweight kingpin Max Holloway to claim a piece of the division’s top prize five months earlier. He’s won three straight since then to re-affirm his standing as one of the apex predators in the lightweight division.
Oliveira has yet to suffer another defeat, ascending to the throne two months ago with the gutsiest effort of his career.
Two men who debuted in the UFC five months apart — Oliveira on August 1, 2010; Poirier on New Year’s Day, 2011 — and have endured the ebbs and flows of a decade-long career inside the Octagon have risen to a point where they’re the top two fighters in the deepest, most talent-rich division in the sport.
They have endured, picking themselves up and dusting themselves off multiple times, and some time later this year, they’ll stand across the Octagon from one another, the UFC lightweight title hanging in the balance.
And something about it just feels right.