Outside Source
Max Holloway will put his BMF belt on the line in a rematch against Charles Oliveira at UFC 326 on March 7 in Las Vegas. Tsarukyan is backing his former foe Oliveira to beat Holloway. While Tsarukyan thinks Oliveira isn’t the most technical sometimes, he believes “do Bronx” outperforms himself on good nights. Tsarukyan earned a split decision win over Oliveira in their matchup in 2024. However, Tsarukyan claims the scorecards didn’t do justice as he beat Oliveira convincingly. “Ahalkalakets” wants Oliveira to beat Holloway so that he can run it back with the Brazilian and show that he has always been better.
‘We Have a History’
“Sometimes Oliveira fights so bad, but sometimes he’s unreal,” Tsarukyan said on Telegram. “You never know with him. I still lean towards him to win. I hope Oliveira wins, we have a history. We can rematch. People say I won via split decision, but I think I won convincingly. I won all rounds. I need to finish him and show people that victory wasn’t an accident. Even two years ago I was a level above him.”
While the win over Oliveira (36-11) earned Tsarukyan (23-3) a title shot against Islam Makhachev, he backed out a day before the fight due to an injury. That withdrawal has cost Tsarukyan nearly a year at his prime as he has been sidelined from the title picture. While Tsarukyan expected to secure a title shot with a win over Dan Hooker last November, he had to wait in the wings as Justin Gaethje won the interim lightweight title against Paddy Pimblett at UFC 324 last month. Gaethje is now expected to fight the champion Ilia Topuria in a title unifier. Meanwhile, Oliveira has gone 2-1 since his loss to Tsarukyan and is fresh off a submission win over Mateusz Gamrot.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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