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Oliveira had recently admitted that his days at bantamweight were numbered. Oliveira’s latest loss to Mario Bautista earlier this month was seemingly the final nail in the coffin. “LokDog” is now calling for a featherweight matchup against former Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling.
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“New category, common opponents with zero risk, fight more times in a year, make more money, reach the belt faster, not to mention that I’m hearing @funkmasterMMA has nightmares about me and already warned his friend @MerabDvalishvili about it — if he wants it, I want it,” Oliveira wrote on X.
Sterling downplayed the callout, saying:
“Lol bruuh… cmon man. Don’t do that.”
Oliveira responded:
“I want new challenges. You’re still a champion, you spoke well of me, I admire that, but you’re the only good guy in the 66kg weight class that I know, so that’s what I want.”
Oliveira then hinted that some within that UFC brass don’t like Sterling and offered to gradually eliminate “Funkmaster.” Oliveira wrote:
@funkmasterMMA , I’ve heard that some people at the UFC don’t like u, i dunno if it’s true, but @danawhite , if u want, I can take care of eliminating him little by little until he gives up.
— Vinicius “LokDog” Oliveira (@LokdogVinicius) February 17, 2026
Oliveira (23-4) was undefeated in four UFC outings going into the toughest test of his career against Bautista. The Brazilian looked simply out of his depth en route to a second-round submission loss. Sterling (25-5) has sandwiched a loss against Movsar Evloev between wins over Calvin Kattar and Brian Ortega since moving up to featherweight in 2024.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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