Charles Oliveira - Former Lightweight Champion

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There are few fighters that embody a human's fighting spirit quite like Charles “Do Bronx” Oliveira. Charles is one of the UFC’s most storied fighters with a long career of ups and downs that captures the minds and hearts of fans around the world. Charles is the former champion of the UFCs lightweight division racking up an impressive 35-10-0 record, recording 1 no contest. Of his 46 fights, a surprisingly low 6 fights have gone to decision. Going to decision at a 13% clip encapsulates the fact that we’re looking at one of the most entertaining and inspiring fighters to have ever graced the octagon. This months feature tells the story of a young man born into the favelas of São Paulo, Brazil who found his unlikely success and stardom decades later. Charles Oliveira is a fascinating case of the resilience of a human’s mind, body, and spirit.

Charles Oliveira was born in October of 1989 into the Favelas of Vincente de Carvalho outside of São Paulo, Brazil, in a town called Guarujá. He lived with his mother, father and his Grandmother in his Grandmother’s home of 50 years. Crime and poverty were and still are a part of everyday life in São Paulo and neighboring favelas. São Paulo ranks in the top 25 most dangerous cities in the world reporting around 800,000 robberies in 2023 alone. It comes as no surprise that survival is a part of every day life for residents of these favelas, Oliveira’s family being no exception. Oliveira’s mom and dad worked many jobs to get by while his grandmother raised him. His mother worked as a cleaning lady for the local school during the day, then cleaned for the school’s owner’s house in the night time. His father sold eggs and used cardboard in the local market all while working at the local slaughterhouse to earn a living. Charles would often help his mother by selling cheese on the beaches of São Paulo. However, Oliveira wasn’t just fighting the conditions of his external environment. Charles Oliveira received a diagnosis at age 7 of rheumatic fever and a heart murmur. He talks about dreams of being a soccer star, echoing the sentiment of many children in Brazil. He reminisces  about wanting to only spend his time playing with the soccer ball, but his doctor had other ideas. Rheumatic fever is a disease where the body’s immune system attacks healthy parts of the body. This combined with a heart murmur and the lack of proper blood circulation concerned doctors to the point where they resigned him to a life of inactivity. Charles tells the story of being hospitalized for months, receiving treatment (penicillin shots) every two weeks to reduce the pain he felt in his bones. In UFC’s Embedded, a promotional documentary series, His mother revealed that she would sleep bedside after working her many jobs for months on end. Against the advice of the doctor, Oliveira’s father allowed him to play sport. Around age 12, a neighbor and close friend brought Charles to the local gym where he discovered his new passion, Jiu-Jitsu. Through the sheer devotion of his parents, continued exercise and the sport of jiu-Jitsu, Charles’ symptoms slowly reduced to nothing ultimately curing himself from what seemed to be life smothering ailment.

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Charles Oliveira showed a clear talent for Jiu-Jitsu early on by winning the São Paolo Jiu-Jitsu Championship just two months after finding the sport with his first trainer Roger Coelho. In the subsequent two years, he racked up another 16 medals, proving his high level abilities all over Brazil, most notably he became a 2 time CBJJE World champion. His Jiu-Jitsu career neared its end in 2007 when Oliveira turned his sights to MMA with hopes to ease financial pressure on his family. Oliveira got started with his first amateur fight in a local circuit, impressively finishing his opponent in 15 seconds via armbar. He then got his professional MMA start with a local Brazillian promotion, Predator FC. Predator FC ran Grand Prix style events (Single Elimination Tournaments) where fighters fought multiple times in one night to win the event. Charles weighed about 155 lbs and entered himself into 170 lbs division. The promoters requested that Oliveira have a nickname for the fighter announcements, thus “Do Bronx” was born. “Do Bronx” translates to “of the favelas” or “of the ghettos.” This name stuck with Oliveira throughout his entire career as he has turned the meaning of “Do Bronx” on its head. Before his first fight night, Oliveira’s father layered clothes on Charles to make the weight limit. This is an early testament to the can do-will do attitude that has anchored Oliveira’s entire career. To kick things off, Charles won the first fight of the night via rear naked choke; following up with another two wins by TKO to win the event. These were early signs of Oliveira’s proficiency in finishing fights. Charles describes this as a pivotal moment in his career or an AHA moment for himself where he felt he could contribute to his family’s financial well being.

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Charles Oliveira early career in the sport of MMA got off to a hot start. Since his debut in Predator FC, Charles would go 12-0 with 11 of those wins coming by way of finish. The UFC quickly took notice of his potential and signed the young fighter to his first contract with the company in 2010. Charles made his debut in the UFC’s lightweight division on the undercard of UFC Live: Jones vs. Matyuhensko on August 1, 2010. Oliveira won his debut fight against the tough and durable Darren Elkins via triangle armbar in the first round. He would then follow up his impressive debut a month later submitting his opponent Efrain Escudero via rear naked choke in the third round of his fight on September 15, 2010 extending his professional record to 14-0. Oliveira’s momentum would quickly come to a close however. His next three fights wouldn’t go his way with 2 losses and 1 no contest. Oliveira’s first loss after his 14-0 start came from Jim Miller, an absolute stud who today holds some of the highest accolades in the company’s history (Most fights (46), Most Wins(27), Second Most Finishes (19)). Miller would submit Oliveira in the first round via kneebar at UFC 124 on December 11, 2010. After a sixth month layoff, Oliveira returned to the octagon to take on Nik Lentz on June 26 2011. The fight was ruled a no contest by judges after Oliveira seemingly finished Lentz. The fight was ruled a no contest due to an illegal knee Oliveira landed to Lentz’s head while he was technically a “downed opponent.” Oliveira tried to bounce back from the misfortune on August 14, 2011 taking on the fan favorite Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone. He was quickly finished by TKO in the first round leaving a lot of questions about Oliveira’s readiness for the level of competition that the UFC brought. The moniker the UFC has always gone back to, “There are no easy fights in the UFC”, was very real for Charles Oliveira. Oliveira subsequently dropped down to the featherweight division for a short time trying to find success against the 145 pounders. Over his next 14 fights, Oliveira would have a mixed bag of results. The narrative built up over this period of his career would attempt define his career and lay the ground work for the Charles Oliveira today that fans overwhelmingly love.

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Despite always bringing action, Oliveira critics began to run with the idea that the fighter was a quitter. This isn’t entirely baseless as the footage of these fights raises red flags. In some of his losses, most notably to Anthony Pettis and Max Holloway, Charles seemingly gave up after things got hard in the octagon. When Oliveira headlined his first Fight Night against Max Holloway on August 23, 2015, he sat down in the octagon in the first round after attempting a takedown, signaling an injury to his shoulder. After the fight, the story came out that he didn’t require any surgery, but instead suffered a small tear to the esophagus. The media and other fighters clowned Oliveira for being a quitter and the evidence tended to back this narrative up. This narrative would continue after losing to Paul Felder at UFC 218 on December 2, 2017 by TKO extending Oliveira’s professional record to 22-8 with 1 no contest. Unbeknownst to UFC fighters, staffers, and fans, the stage was set for movie-esque comeback. Oliveira needed a change and felt like his standup wasn’t up to par with the rest of his game, so he sought out a new gym and trainer. Oliveira would end up with the Brazilian Muay Thai team Chute Box Gym with trainer Diego Lima. This move would massively payoff as he would go on to rattle off 11 straight wins on his road to UFC gold.

On May 15, 2021 at UFC 262, Oliveira would get his chance at UFC lightweight gold against Michael Chandler. After one of the most dominant fighters in the company’s history, former lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov vacated the belt and retired from MMA, the division needed a new champion. Oliveira’s scheduled opponent, Former Bellator Champion Michael Chandler, was signed to the UFC the year previous and was coming off an impressive win by TKO against the durable Kiwi fighter Dan Hooker. Oliveira and Chandler took the octagon for the fight and would change the outlook of the division for the next few years. The first round of the fight brought the action that Michael Chandler has been known for since his signing. After trading some blows on the feet, Chandler found Oliveira’s neck threatening a guillotine (front headlock). Oliveira then slipped out of the choke and took Chandler’s back which seemed to be the end of the fight. After reversing the position, Chandler rained down some nasty ground and pound that Oliveira was able to survive and ultimately get back to his feet. In the final minutes of round one, chandler starches Oliveira, sitting him down on the canvas where chandler would threaten to finish the fight by TKO, but Oliveira would survive until the end of the round eating some big blows to the head. Going into round two, Chandler had the momentum while Oliveira showed damage on his face. Within seconds of the bell ringing for the second round, Oliveira threw an overhand right that missed above Chandler’s head, following up the miss with a tight left hook that sat down Chandler. Charles followed up the left hook with a swarm of punches and elbows that ultimately were too much for Chandler winning by TKO. After 27 fights with the promotion, Oliveira finally got his hands on UFC Gold, an achievement very few fighters come close to. The little boy from the favelas of São Paulo danced around the arena celebrating the culmination of his hard work in a moment that will live with him and UFC fans forever.

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Oliveira wouldn’t stop here as he would run the gauntlet of the lightweight division’s scariest fighters that ruled the top 5 for years. His first title defense came against the UFC favorite and Former Lightweight Interim Champion, Dustin Poirier in the Main Event of UFC 269 on December 11 2021. After a fierce 3 round battle, Oliveira found Poirier’s back and submitted the UFC Veteran via rear naked choke confirming his status as the true champion of the division. Following this impressive win, Oliveira would turn around and suit up for his second title defense 5 months later taking on the divisional mainstay and Former Lightweight Interim Champion Justin Gaethje. In the first round, after being knocked down twice by gnarly overhand rights, Oliveira would return the favor and sit Gaethje down with a right hand. After threatening an armbar, Oliveira took Gaethje’s back in a scramble and submitted the former champion by rear naked choke. Charles Oliveira would finally receive his flowers from the media and other fighters after this performance, removing his label as a “quitter,” inversely being applauded for his resilience.

Unfortunately Oliveira’s reign would come to an end when he took a fight against Khabib Nurmagomedov’s protégée and future No.1 pound for pound fighter, Russia’s Islam Makhechev on October 22, 2022 at UFC 280. Islam submitted Oliveira via arm triangle choke in the second round ushering in a new era of Dagestani fighting. Since losing the belt, Oliveira has fought three times producing a record of 2 wins with 1 loss. He remains at the top of the division til this day, most recently beating Michael Chandler for a second time on November 16, 2024 at UFC 309 by unanimous decision.

The fact remains that Charles Oliveira hasn’t always had the the easy road to glory. From childhood poverty and medical ailments, many losses inside the octagon, to overcoming the court of public opinion, the human spirit can defy all odds. Charles Oliveira is now tied for second for most wins in the UFC (23), holds the record for most finishes in the UFC (20), most submission wins in the UFC (16), and holds the most fight night bonuses in the UFC (20).

  We are not defined by our wins, but by our losses and how we choose to bounce back from the challenges we face. The story of Charles “Do Bronx” Oliveira is living proof that flowers do grow from the concrete.

Sources: UFC Embedded, UFC.com, statista.com, Wikipedia.com