If Charles Oliveira wants to dance for the BMF title, Max Holloway may just be his huckleberry.
Holloway, the current holder of the UFC’s symbolic BMF title, wasted little time responding to Oliveira following the Brazilian’s electric victory Saturday at UFC Rio. Mere minutes after Oliveira dispatched Mateusz Gamrot with a second-round submission and promptly called out Holloway, the former UFC featherweight champion went live on streaming platform Kick and accepted Oliveira’s offer.
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“I’m interested,” Holloway said. “Why wouldn’t I be?
“We’ve been talking about this fight. Me and him have a history. He’s blaming it on some type of injury. I guess we get to figure it out now.”
Holloway, 33, and Oliveira, 35, infamously fought more than a decade ago at a UFC Fight Night event in August 2015, when both men were still up-and-coming contenders trying to climb the featherweight ladder. In a bizarre contest, Holloway won in just 99 seconds after Oliveira suffered an apparent esophagus injury. Holloway captured the UFC interim featherweight title a year later then became undisputed champion in 2017, ultimately rattling off three defenses of the belt before dropping it in 2019.
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Oliveira eventually moved up to the lightweight division and became one of the most respected 155-pounders of this era, winning the title in 2021 and dispatching a who’s who of top names.
Oliveira (36-11, 1 NC) reasserted his status as a top lightweight contender on Saturday at UFC Rio, steamrolling through late-replacement opponent Gamrot en route to a face crank stoppage just 105 days after suffering a brutal knockout loss in his fight against Ilia Topuria for the vacant UFC lightweight title. Afterward, Oliveira used his post-fight interview to call for the Holloway rematch.
“Hey [UFC executive] Hunter [Campbell], Charles Oliveira and Max Holloway, BMF — let’s make that happen,” Oliveira declared.
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Holloway (27-8) said Saturday night that he’s currently recovering from a hand injury and is still waiting to get medically cleared. He said he’s only doing strength and conditioning at the moment and is unsure of a potential target date for his return, though a March 2026 comeback could be “very possible.”
Holloway was also lukewarm at the idea of waiting for the UFC’s White House event in June 2026, as that would put him out of action for nearly a year — though he did acknowledge that he’d be open to the idea if the UFC compensated him adequately to wait.
“Can you imagine?” Holloway said of the prospect of fighting Oliveira at the White House.
“I don’t know if I want to wait that long, but we’ll see what happens. We’ll see what happens. Never say never.”
