Laura Sanko wants to see Charles Oliveira get another shot at Islam Makhachev.
The world was looking on this past weekend as number one contender Charles Oliveira took out the streaking Beneil Dariush in the co-main event of UFC 289. Many people believe that this fight was “the people’s main event” as it had a lot riding on it in terms of the lightweight title contention. Oliveira put a stamp on his contender-ship by knocking out Dariush in the first round. Oliveira is a former champion and one of the best grapplers in all of the UFC. The only blemish on his record in the past six years has been against the champion Islam Makhachev.
Laura Sanko thinks Oliveira will have learned from his mistakes with Islam Makhachev
Sanko was on the ESPN desk on Saturday night looking on as Oliveira took out the man people thought was going to be the next title contender in Dariush. The fact that Oliveira put on such a dominant performance makes him the next true contender for the champion in Sanko’s eyes.
“I genuinely believe that Charles Olivera should be next for Islam Makhachev. I think that he earned that right tonight by finishing Beneil Daruish in the manner in which he finished him,” she said. “Now I like the Dustin Poirier fight I liked the Justin Gaethje fight but I’ll be honest with you when you sit back and think about okay well how those fights, it’s really hard not think of Islam as a better Khabib and then you look at how those fights went that’s my only hang up with it. So if either of those guys can have a lights-out performance against one another. Yeah, they’ll be in the running but I think Charles is the one who deserves the shot.”
Makhachev defeated Oliveira in the second round of their fight by submission by arm-triangle choke. Sanko believes that Oliveira may have underestimated the striking game of the champion however, after his last fight against another champion Alexander Volkanovski, Oliveira will be able to see some weaknesses in his game.
“Watching the Islam fight with Volkanovski. No one will do that again. Certainly not Charles, there is so much more tape to study on the way that Islam sets up his strikes, the way he sets up his takedowns,” she said. “That one fight alone is an excellent tape study in terms of how you need to approach Islam moving forward. You know that he will not underestimate his striking this time. I just got to believe that if he doesn’t do that, we’re going to see a much more competitive fight and I’m not going to count him out in this one.”
The UFC has yet to announce who will be next for Makhachev. His last fight was against Volkanovski in February. He seems to be waiting it out to see how a few cards fell in the division. One is Oliveira taking a Dariush and the next is Dustin Poirier’s fight with Justin Gaethje for the BMF title later this summer.
