Robert Whittaker explains why he’s picking Charles Oliveira to rebound against Mateusz Gamrot.
Ex-lightweight champion Oliveira (35-11 MMA, 23-11 UFC) takes on Mateusz Gamrot (25-3 MMA, 8-3 UFC) in Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 261 (ESPN+) main event at Farmasi Arena in Rio de Janeiro.
Oliveira will be making less than a four-month turnaround after getting knocked out by Ilia Topuria in their lightweight title fight at UFC 317 in June. The quick turnaround concerns Whittaker, but the former champion thinks Oliveira’s well-rounded game will help him prevail.
“I’m going to have to lean toward Oliveira,” Whittaker said on his “MMArcade Podcast.” “I think his kickboxing can give Gamrot problems. Not to mention, Charles works extremely well off his back. He’s so dangerous with that. So I think that nullifies Gamrot’s mixing of the levels.
“Which means it’s going to be – if we’re looking at it in a pure kickboxing sense, Oliveira, I think, has the cleaner strikes. But it is relatively soon after the Topuria loss. Charles has been getting hit hard for the longest time, and that last one was hard-hard. I’m going to lean toward Oliveira. Definitely has the skill set, but I am worried about the recency of his losses.”
According to oddsmakers, Oliveira is a very slight favorite over short-notice replacement Gamrot, who has won four of his past five fights.
