Charles Oliveira showed why he is one of the best jiu jitsu practitioners in the UFC during his outing against Justin Gaethje at UFC 274. Despite struggling in the striking exchanges early on in round 1, Oliveira was able to secure a dominant victory by taking the action to the ground and utilizing his grappling skills.
Oliveira continued to dominate on the ground. He transitioned from a triangle to back control and was able to get under Gaethje’s chin. From there, it was only a matter of time before Gaethje tapped out.
Gaethje hasn’t competed since – and neither has his teammate Rose Namajunas who lost the title to Carla Esparza on the same card. Fans online are questioning Namajunas’ mental health and if she’ll ever even come back to MMA.
Meanwhile Gaethje booked his return against Rafael Fiziev for UFC 286. Fiziev lobbied for this match even though Gaethje was initially reluctant.
Ahead of UFC 286, Gaethje talked to BT sport and provided a very interesting rationalization for his loss at UFC 274.
“You in the I mean, the biggest takeaway… I mean, being at home, having Rose go before me with with the performance. I was really emotional. I really got caught up and, you know, I’m human and the emotions got to me. I went out there. I don’t even recognize myself in that cage, that night .Because of the factor of the emotions that I let overcome my ability to be perfect.”
“I was far from perfect and that’s what I took away from it.”
“in hindsight? Absolutely. But when you’re in there, you don’t know. Yeah, you know, you just you think it’s just trying to be natural. That’s naturally who we are as humans. You know, we are emotional. And that’s that’s the biggest change.”