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UFC analyst and broadcast team member Michael Bisping believes Charles Oliveira has the chance to be the greatest lightweight fighter of all time at UFC 280.
Top contender Oliveira is scheduled to take on Islam Makhachev for the vacant title in the headlining bout of UFC 280 on Oct. 22 at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. It will be the first time in the history of the promotion that two athletes enter the bout on a 10-fight win streak or longer. Oliveira goes into the outing as the betting underdog despite Makhachev’s lack of top-five-ranked opposition.
Makhachev will look to follow in the footsteps of his teammate and friend, former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, who retired undefeated without a single blemish on his record and is widely regarded as one of the best mixed martial artists of all time.
During his time at the top, ‘The Eagle’ never looked to be in any serious trouble and was not even cut or rocked a single time inside the octagon. Although his status as a legend of the sport is without many reservations, Bisping isn’t confident that he could make his claim as the best lightweight fighter ever.
Bisping Says Oliveira Will Be the Goat if He Beats Makhachev
In a recent video uploaded on his YouTube account, Bisping backed Oliveira to be ahead of Khabib in the race for the greatest 155-pound UFC athlete of all time, if he dispatches of Makhachev this Saturday.
“Is Charles Oliveira, in fact, the greatest lightweight of all time? Because he might just be. It all depends on what happens in Abu Dhabi,” Bisping said (transcribed by MMA Junkie). “Greatest lightweight of all time? I think if Charles beats Islam this weekend, I think that belongs to Charles now. I really do. I think he will have surpassed him simply because he’s taken out all the top contenders. And it’s not Khabib’s fault, but you cannot deny the numbers, the momentum, the history that Oliveira’s making.”
Bisping Isn’t Certain Khabib Could Beat Oliveira
Khabib had a highly successful run in MMA, hanging up his gloves in Oct. 2020 after a dominant win over Justin Gaethje in his final bout at UFC 254 with a record of 29-0.
‘The Count’ acknowledged the high points of ‘The Eagle’s career but argued he might have stepped away from professional competition a bit early.
“All we ever saw was him win and dominate people, but he retired at 32 years old after three title defenses and two-and-a-half-years as champion of the world,” Bisping said. “That’s fantastic, but if he had stuck around longer, would we have seen him lose the belt? Would we have seen him get challenged? We’ll never know, and that is one of the real arguments for Khabib not being the pound-for-pound No. 1.”
While Bisping respects Khabib’s reasons to retire, he isn’t certain the unbeaten Dagestani could have come out on top against ‘do Bronx.’
“The reality is, the reason we ask the question is because he didn’t stick around long enough. And we know why. It was a very honorable reason. He made a promise to his mother, and he stuck to that. Wow, what a guy. I respect that so much. But would he have beaten all these top new contenders? He’d have beaten some of them, but would he have beaten Charles? We don’t know. We can only imagine.”
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