Beneil Dariush says Charles Oliveira bouncing back is no accident.
Oliveira (37-11 MMA, 25-11 UFC) dominated Max Holloway by outgrappling him for five rounds to claim the BMF title at UFC 326 last month. Oliveira has leant heavily on his wrestling in his past three wins over Holloway, Mateusz Gamrot, and Michael Chandler.
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While many criticized Oliveira for his game plan, Dariush praises him for resorting to other strengths in his game. The 36-year-old says the wrestling grind is not easy during training camps – especially later in your career, which makes what Oliveira is doing that much more impressive.
“He’s a guy as he gets older, he seems to be doing a lot more wrestling, and it shows,” Dariush told MMA Junkie of Oliveira. “It shows when he goes out there and it shows his success. He did that with Chandler, he did that with Max. All these guys he fought he did that with. He tries to take everybody down. He tried to take Ilia (Topuria) down, which I thought was the right idea.
“He tried to take me down, he tried to take down (Islam) Makhachev. He was trying, and I think that’s the right approach, and that’s why his wrestling looks so good. What makes it scary is because even though he could wrestle so well, there’s also the striking. I thought he was winning the striking, too, against Holloway. So either way, even if you don’t like the fight, he was winning one way or another.”
“Do Bronx” took a significant amount of damage in his title fights against Chandler, Dustin Poirier, Justin Gaethje and Topuria, but has looked a lot cleaner in his recent performances.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Beneil Dariush credits Charles Oliveira for wrestling-heavy game plans
