Charles Oliveira was forced to withdraw from his UFC 288 bout against Beneil Dariush due to an undisclosed injury during wrestling practice, but there’s no confirmed timetable for his return to training.
Charles Oliveira was set to face Beneil Dariush in a potential No. 1 contender bout at UFC 288, but an undisclosed injury forced him to withdraw from the May 6 card. Dariush mentioned that the fight could be moved to UFC 289 on June 10 in Canada; however, Oliveira has not yet returned to training. On Monday afternoon, Oliveira broke his silence about the situation through his Instagram stories, revealing that he made the decision after realizing he could not train properly for the New Jersey card.
“I wasn’t able to train, I got injured during wrestling practice,” Oliveira said in Portuguese. “I tried to train, I tried to do everything I could but we couldn’t, so we pulled out of the fight. [Fighting at UFC 288] would be great because I would be fighting on the same night of two teammates, ‘Willycat’ [Daniel Santos] and Rolando [Bedoya], but God knows all things. We’ll continue working and stay focused.” The former UFC lightweight champion was hoping that a win over Dariush could set up a rematch for later this year after his long winning streak was snapped by Islam Makhachev this past October in Abu Dhabi. Oliveira did not reveal a timetable for his return to training or if UFC 289 is a viable option.
Oliveira emphasized the importance of not rushing back into training, stating, “I have to stay [away from training] for a few days so I can go back to training soon, and then we’ll reschedule the fight. I’ll be back to training pretty soon. That’s it, I had a small injury and decided to pull out so I wouldn’t fight injured. We’ve made that mistake once and I didn’t want to do it again. … We’re taking one step back so we can take one, two, three steps forward soon.”