Charles Oliveira is one of the most battle tested fighters in UFC history and a prior opponent of his has weighed in on Oliveira’s looming rematch with Max Holloway. As Oliveira aims to battle Holloway for the latter’s BMF title, Clay Guida offered up some thoughts on that UFC 326 headliner, as Guida said [via Bowks Talking Bouts],
“Man, you talk about two of my favorite guys to ever grace the octagon. Two guys, if you saw them walking down the road, didn’t know anything about sports, didn’t know anything about mixed martial arts, probably wouldn’t assume that those guys are world champs, former world champs. Two of the most dominant badass dudes in the UFC of all time. I’ll put those guys instant hall of famers guaranteed.”
“First ballot, the day they retire, boom, they should be inducted immediately after. Two guys, yeah, like I said, very unassuming that don’t really look like fighters, you know what I mean? When you see them go out there, they are every bit of what you want to see in a champion, what you want to see in a fighter, someone that represents your country, someone that represents the sport very, very well.”
“I am so pumped about that event. That fight’s going to be balls to the wall. Two highly skilled athletes that haven’t slowed down in their career. They’ve done nothing but improve, it’s unreal. I remember there was that time when Oliveira was going back and forth between ’45 and ’55 when he was the youngest. I think at one point he might have been the youngest UFC fighter a long time ago.”
Charles Oliveira win over Clay Guida kicked of his all time career run, per ‘The Carpenter’
When further discussing ‘do Bronx’ Oliveira before also describing his viewpoint on ‘Blessed’ Holloway, Guida continued [via Bowks Talking Bouts],
“I think he came in when he was 18 or 19, 20 or something like that. He had a lot of hype around him and then people were like, “Oh, you know, blah blah blah this and that.” But then he got back on his horse at 155 and yeah, unfortunately he beat me about five miles from here in Chicago at the house that Michael Jordan built. I fought him at the United Center in front of a home crowd and safe to say it didn’t go very well. Didn’t go as planned.”
“But that was the first fight of his trajectory when he went on what I call one of the most remarkable lightweight runs or UFC runs of all time. I think he won like maybe eight or ten straight fights in that run to having that title, defending that belt for quite some time. So, he’s incredible. The guy just keeps getting better, keeps putting top tier athletes away. Max Holloway on the other hand, this guy just continues to not surprise me.”
“He continues to impress me each performance in and out. It’s just unreal. The guy I mean, he beats wrestlers, he beats jiu-jitsu guys, he beats strikers, he beats boxers, and he beats them with authority. He literally takes these guys will from them. He makes these guys quit in there. He points to his opponent, he points to the mat, he puts his hands up, and he backs it up. You know, he is pure entertainment.”
“The guy doesn’t look like he could hurt a fly, you know what I mean? If you see him, but when he gets in there, that dude is all business. Just an absolute savage. So, this fight it’s got all the makings of a fight of the year, fight of the night, for sure. You get to see two legends go at it for the BMF belt and who more deserving than these guys. So yeah, as you can tell, I’m a little bit excited about this matchup.”