A List of Interesting Charles Oliveira Facts

Charles Oliveira de Silva is a Brazilian fighter who achieved a big name in mixed martial arts and BJJ. Oliveira won the title of UFC Lightweight champion and he owns various UFC records.

1. Early Life of Charles Oliveira

Charles Oliveira was born on 17 October 1989 in Brazil. He belonged to a poor family and used to sell snacks with his family to provide end meals. He started his journey in fighting at a very young age.

Charles Oliveira is one of those rare fighters who have some interesting facts about them and their life history. Let's have a quick glance at some interesting facts about Charles Oliveira.

2. Worked at Young Age to Support his Family

Oliveira was brought up in the neighborhood of Guaruja, Sao Paulo in poverty. This poverty played a basic role in building his humble and ambitious personality. After his treatment, he started working with his mother who sold cheese salad from a trailer to meet their daily requirements.

3. Wished to Become a Soccer Star

Most combat sports competitors had a dream to become big fighters. But this is not the same with Oliveira as he wanted to become a soccer player from an early age. He started playing football when he was seven years old. He wanted to become a professional international football player.

4. Rheumatic Fever Changed his Life

During early childhood when Oliveira started to follow his dream and often play football, he suffered from severe illness. He felt pain in his whole body and was unable to walk normally. Doctors diagnosed this illness as rheumatic fever which affected his heart and lower body badly. His lower body was at risk of Paraplegic (being paralyzed).

Besides his illness, Oliveira’s parents supported him with the goal of becoming a martial artist. After treatment for two years, Oliveira recovered and it seemed possible that he could join martial arts.

5. His Nickname Came from the Bronx

Oliveira’s gym fellows used to call him “De Bronx”. When Oliveira moved to Macaco Gold gym from Bronx gym, his fellows used to call him “Kid from the Bronx”. The Bronx is called “Do Bronx” in Portuguese.

6. Can’t See Without Glasses

Oliveira previously suffered from myopia, also known as short-sightedness. He had a problem seeing distant objects. On removing his glasses, he could not see clearly. As he said,

"If I take my glasses off, I only see 50 percent but it never hindered me in a fight, I see three [faces]. If I hit the middle one, that's fine".

In October 2022, he had corrective eye surgery after which his eyes recovered.

7. His Social Work to Support Poor Children

As Charles Oliveira spent his childhood in poverty, he is now doing great social work to support his community. He has his own project to help those kids who are susceptible to crime due to poverty. He tried to help them by diverting them toward combat sports.

8. Achieved his First BJJ Tournament Win in Junior Division

Charles Oliveira started training BJJ at a young age when he was 12 years old. He earned his first title in Sao Paulo State Championship in Junior Division at the White Belt level in 2003 when he was 14 years old. He again won this championship in 2004.

9. World Champion in BJJ

Charles Oliveira continued his success in BJJ and won Copa Nação Jiu-Jitsu Championship in 2005. Charles won a total of 16 medals in 2006 in major tournaments and classified himself as a top-class grappler.

In 2007 and 2008, Charles won various BJJ championships like CBJJ South America Championship, CBJJ World Championship, FPJ Sao Paulo State Championship, and CBJJ World Cup. And he started his journey in MMA.

10. Record Submission Rate in UFC History

Oliveira started his MMA career by winning an MMA tournament held in Brazil named Circuito de Vale Tudo Amador by Armbar. Oliveira Charles earned a place among big names of MMA fighters in 2008 and won various belts in different events.

Now, Charles Oliveira is top of the list of MMA fighters with a great submission rate. He won 33 matches of which 19 are submission wins. This is the most impressive submission rate.

11. UFC Record

Charles Oliveira owns a professional record of 33-9-0. He won 33 matches with 30 matches won via finishes. He was on an eleven-fight win streak including 8 performances of the night awards. Oliveira ranked 1st in UFC lightweight category till October 2022. He was uplifted to 1st rank in January 2022.

Now after losing to Islam Makhachev, he is classified as 2nd in the lightweight category. He is also the most dangerous submission fighter in MMA who made the record for most submissions in UFC.

12. The Biggest Clash of UFC Lightweight Championship of 2022

The lightweight division is one of the toughest and most competitive divisions in MMA. And the person who is the lightweight champion in the UFC record is definitely the strongest person in UFC history. Charles Oliveira owned the honor of being the top Lightweight champion until his last fight with Islam Makhachev. Before this fight, when Charles Oliveira had a fight in UFC 278, he submitted Justin Gaethje but stripped him of his title due to his failure to make weight (half pound)in the title defense fight.

12.1. UFC 280: Charles Oliveira Vs. Islam Makhachev

To claim the Lightweight Title, UFC 280 held in Abu Dhabi, Charles Oliveira faced Islam Makhachev in the Lightweight division. Both were high-ranked UFC fighters and this was the most hyped fight after the Conor vs Khabib fight.

12.2. Pre Fight Hype

Let's rewind for a minute. Charles Oliveira was the UFC no.1 Lightweight champion, the best UFC fighter, and also he is the most dangerous submission grappler. He is famous for most finishes in UFC history. He also owns the highest submission rate in UFC history. Charles Oliveira had his famous words after submitting Justin Gaethje in UFC 274,

“Champion has a name, and it's Charles Oliveira”.

The majority were in the favor of Oliveira that he will be the owner of the belt in UFC 280.

Now have a look at the other fighter, Islam Makhachev. He is the name that comes to the minds of various people who can overcome the no.1 lightweight champion rank. Islam Makhachev is trained by top coaches like Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov (late) and Khabib Nurmagomedov. Islam Makhachev has a UFC MMA record of 23-1-0 and a winning rate of 96%.

13. Clash for the UFC Lightweight Title

Late Abdulmanap had a dream that Makhachev will be the next lightweight champion after Khabib’s retirement. On 24 October 2020, Khabib Nurmagomedov predicted that Islam Makhachev will be the next champion of the Lightweight category. Before the fight, there was a lot of pressure on Islam Makhachev.

Before the fight, Charles Oliveira and Islam Makhachev met in a press conference where they both handled the questions confidently and technically. According to Charles Oliveira, Islam took this chance to fight due to his relationship with Khabib and he is not on merit. To fight with Charles, Islam should have fought some other high-ranked fighters.

But Islam dealt with this conversation very calmly and confidently. He showed a great belief that he will take this belt for his people and his country. The Brazilian fighter was also very confident that he is a top fighter and he will be.

On 22 October 2022, both champions faced each other. Both fighters started the match with high energy. Islam started the match with a left hand and Islam took the top of Oliveira in the start and Oliveira applied full guard. To escape full guard, Islam ended up strangled with a half Triangle choke but quickly slipped out.

Islam who is famous for not committing any mistakes continuously secured his top position. Islam tried side mount and straight armlock but Oliveira did not let him take this opportunity.

After a few moments, when Oliveira tripped and tried to take down Islam, Islam countered by reversing and again ended up in the top position. At the end of the first round, Charles tried to apply a triangle choke but failed.

The second round started with heavy striking from both fighters. Charles Oliveira recovered and now trying to execute high pitch blows but Islam did not let him dominate.

Oliveira again tried to apply full guard but Islam took this opportunity and applied side control. Islam applied an armbar which proved to be the submission method and Oliveira tapped. But this was one of the most competitive performances that Charles has ever performed

Charles Oliveira said in his post-fight interview that

“Sometimes we are here and it's not our day, I promise you I am Gonna back”

He spoke about his match in UFC 280 later and said that he wanted to take part in the next UFC283. He loves to fight in Brazil but now he wants to take some rest, spend some time with family, and needs recovery time.

His fans still have their thoughts that Charles Oliveira will come again with his high level preparation and the results will be changed.

14. Takeaways

Charles Oliveira is a high-ranked UFC fighter who owns the highest submission rate and finishing record. He started his career at the age of 12 with BJJ and ended up the Champion in MMA. Now he owns various interesting facts which make him exceptional and extraordinary.

Photo credit: @charlesdobronxs