Charles Oliveira is certainly preparing for Justin Gaethje.
The Lead-Up
Oliveira is coming off an impressive come-from-behind victory over Dustin Poirier at UFC 269 in December to earn his first lightweight title defense.
His next defense is set to be against Gaethje as the pair are set to headline the upcoming UFC 274 pay-per-view event taking place May 4 at a to-be-decided location.
While Oliveira has leveled up as a fighter and has shown tremendous heart in his recent outings, many observers feel Gaethje’s power could be the difference in the fight.
That’s without mentioning his forward pressure and deadly leg kicks.
Charles Oliveira Training Partners Emulating Justin Gaethje
“Do Bronx” is well-aware of the threats Gaethje possesses.
In a recent Instagram post, the Brazilian shared some intense sparring sessions he had with multiple training partners in preparation for the Gaethje fight.
And going from the footage, it’s quite clear that his training partner is emulating Gaethje’s style.
You can watch it below:
Of course, sparring is very different from the real thing.
But Oliveira has shown that he can hang with some of the best and heavy-hitting strikers as shown by his victories against Michael Chandler and Poirier.
Gaethje, however, will be a different test not only because of his style, but his takedown defense which has held up against just about everyone not named Khabib Nurmagomedov. With that said, Oliveira still remains the favorite.
Gaethje is coming off a back-and-forth unanimous decision win over Chandler in November. Prior to that, “The Highlight” suffered a submission defeat to Nurmagomedov in their lightweight title fight back in October 2020.
