CHARLES OLIVEIRA IS THE MAN!

After another scintillating performance on Saturday night, Charles Oliveira proved that he is currently the best 155lber on the planet. A one-round war with "The Highlight' Justin Gaethje gave us a bit of everything, but it was ultimately ended by 'DoBronx' when he locked in the rear naked choke and forced Gaethje to quit. The main event was dampened before it had even started, due to Oliveira missing weight by half a pound on Friday evening, causing him to be stripped of the Lightweight title, meaning only Gaethje was able to be champion if either of the two won. Despite some controversy with the faultiness of the weighing scale, the UFC confirmed the vacancy of the title as well as the fight still being scheduled to take place. The fight itself was spectacular, there was no waiting around as Charles already had Gaethje rocked inside the first ten seconds. It was the American though who dropped Oliveira a couple of times, but this didn't phase DoBronx, who had experienced this in his previous two fights against Michael Chandler and Dustin Poirier. After a short breather on the ground after the knockdown, Oliveira reset and continued to do damage on the feet. Going into the fight, many tipped Gaethje to have a bit of a clearer advantage standing up, but Oliveira's striking has improved so much. His use of the knees in the muay thai plum allow him to quickly get off damaging attacks to the body, this was used extremely effectively against Poirier too at UFC 269.

Although Oliveira has a habit of not moving his head and getting knocked down, he is fearless in the face of battle and willing to take damage to deal his own. His toughness and fight IQ allow him to wear down his opponents and eventually get a finish.

DoBronx even managed to knock Gaethje down too, which led up to the submission finish. Justin has a problem of being too reckless and getting drawn into a scrappy fight, his looping wild strikes cause an unbalance and makes him more immune to being caught. There were moments in his epic fight with Michael Chandler that showed this, previously it has caused him to be finished as well, namely against Dustin Poirier and Eddie Alvarez. Oliveira was clearly aware of it and used it to his advantage. It was Oliveira's own knockdown of Gaethje which signalled the end of the fight. After dropping the American with a sweet right hand, Charles instantly took Gaethje's back in look for a submission, he almost locked in a head and arm triangle but Justin escaped. The ensuing scramble allowed Charles to take Justin's back again, this time with both hooks in and the rear naked choke sunk in. As soon as it was locked in, you knew what was going to happen, Gaethje tapped. The unfortunate events at the weigh-ins have left Charles without a belt to show for his brilliant victory, but his performance indicated that he is certainly the best lightweight right now. As for what's next, the logical fight would be DoBronx against Islam Makhachev, but Michael Chandler's crazy knockout of Tony Ferguson on Saturday has put him back in contention. You've got the enigma that is Conor McGregor too but Makhachev seems like the most appropriate choice. Perhaps if Alexander Volkanovski wins his trilogy against Max Holloway in July we could see a super-fight between Volk and Oliveira, I'm sure many wouldnt complain about that! With Charles Oliveira at the top, expect more brilliant showcases of Mixed Martial Arts, his journey has been spectacular and is now arguably one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world.