Chael Sonnen isn’t ruling out the chances of a Charles Oliveira vs. Conor McGregor fight.
Oliveira recently defended his lightweight title for the first time after submitting Dustin Poirier in the third round of their UFC 269 headliner earlier this month.
It appeared as if Justin Gaethje would be next in line for Oliveira with the pair even meeting each other after the fight.
However, things have taken a turn for the worse — at least for Gaethje — after McGregor declared soon after that his first fight back from injury would be against Oliveira for the 155-pound crown.
Oliveira was even reciprocal to the idea and didn’t seem to care too much about Gaethje being skipped over.
“May would be a wonderful date,” Oliveira said. “Conor challenged me asking a date, and tweeted Ireland vs. Brazil 2. Not only him, but also myself and all the world wants to see that fight. So let’s make it happen.
“I’m waiting for him in May. It may be in welterweight, lightweight or middleweight, with my title on the line or not. Just choose and I´ll be ready.”
What do you think about this weekend?
I'm ready, I'm still in town, and there's an up&coming event. Let's go baby https://t.co/BDbI6SzewF pic.twitter.com/yh51OmPLX4
— Charles 'DoBronxs' Oliveira (@CharlesDoBronxs) December 13, 2021
Chael Sonnen: Dana White Provided A Hint About Oliveira vs. McGregor
Of course, McGregor has lost his last two fights in a row and has only won once in the last five years in total. But given his star power, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him skip over Gaethje and get a title shot.
UFC president Dana White even hinted at this as Sonnen recalls an interview the former did with Daniel Cormier.
“There’s a story going round around — I don’t believe it — that Conor McGregor is going to return right into a title fight with Charles Oliveira,” Sonnen said in a recent video on his YouTube channel. “To support that story is a guy who has a say in this called Charles Oliveira. Charles said, ‘Justin Gaethje, you’ve done everything right and it’s no disrespect but step aside, I’m getting my red panty night.’ Okay, well, we have to listen, he’s the champion of the world. We don’t wanna disrespect Justin Gaethje but put that on hold. Oliveira gets to do what’s best for him and he’s made it very clear that he will push the number one contender aside, whoever the hell it is. Happens to be Justin Gaethje. But whoever it is, he will push them aside if it means red panty night against Conor McGregor.
“So, Daniel Cormier, happens to be interviewing. He’s having a discussion with Dana White and that topic came up and Dana absolutely was not committing that, ‘yeah that’s the direction we’re gonna go and we would make that fight.’ But Dana did say something on behalf of Conor McGregor which is, ‘stop right there Daniel and everybody else that thinks Conor should not be able to fight Oliveira. Conor, from the beginning of time, has been willing to fight anybody, anytime we’ve needed him too. So if Conor’s gonna come in and ask for one, I’m going to listen to him. The end.'”
It certainly wouldn’t be the first time McGregor has skipped the line over a deserving contender.
You can watch the full video below:
