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Glover Teixeira has put forth his opinion regarding Charles Oliveira being stripped of his UFC lightweight title. Speaking to Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, Teixeira suggested that he still considers Oliveira to be the UFC lightweight champion.
Oliveira missed weight by 0.5 pounds ahead of his scheduled UFC lightweight title defense against Justin Gaethje at UFC 274 earlier this month. As a result, Oliveira was stripped of his title and was ineligible to win the title even though he beat Gaethje via first-round submission at UFC 274.
Teixeira noted that there were issues with the calibration of the UFC weigh-in scales, which reportedly caused many UFC 274 fighters to have trouble making weight.
The UFC light heavyweight champion asserted that while he still regards Oliveira as the lightweight kingpin, he understands that technically, ‘Do Bronx’ did break the rules by not making the 155-pound lightweight title bout weight limit. Teixeira stated:
“Man, he’s still the champion for me. For everybody, in his mind, he’s probably champ, you know. It was crazy. It was ridiculous. If he was a couple pounds [over], I would say unprofessional on his part. But he’s a half-pound [over], and everybody knows about the scale problem.”
He added:
“And yeah, man. He’s the champion, man. He’s still the champion. And if they strip them, that’s the law, and that’s the law. But hey…” Teixeira continued, “I’m not gonna sit here and say, ‘Oh, that’s wrong, you know.’ Hey, it is kind of wrong, but what are you gonna do, you know? It’s the law.”
Watch Glover Teixeira’s conversation with Ariel Helwani in the video below:
Gilbert Burns foresees Charles Oliveira defeating Islam Makhachev in their potential UFC lightweight title fight
UFC light heavyweight champion Glover Teixeira is scheduled to defend his title against Jiri Prochazka at UFC 275 on June 11th. Meanwhile, the consensus is that Charles Oliveira, who’s on an 11-fight win streak, will fight for the vacant UFC lightweight title next.
Top-tier lightweight contender Islam Makhachev, who’s on a 10-fight win streak, will likely serve as Oliveira’s opponent for the vacant title matchup. Speaking to Helen Yee, UFC welterweight elite Gilbert Burns recently explained why Charles Oliveira would be the favorite to beat Islam Makhachev.
Highlighting Oliveira’s superior skills and size advantage over Makhachev, Burns said:
“That's a fight that is very intriguing. I still believe Oliveira can get a win because of the striking, the pressure that he does, the jiu-jitsu. People are saying, ‘Oh, the sambo,’ yeah, I got it but Oliveira is huge for that division. I took a picture with that guy, and that guy is bigger than me, I was looking like, ‘Bro, you're big!’”
Watch the full Burns' interview in the video below:
