Coach Discusses Charles Oliveira’s Weigh-in Controversy, Potential Post-UFC 274 Foes

It has been a busy two weeks for Diego Lima, the head coach of Chute Boxe Sao Paulo.

Shortly after Charles Oliveira’s victory over Justin Gaethje at UFC 274 this past Saturday, Lima headed to Las Vegas – accompanied by Oliveira – to corner fighters Allan Patrick and Allan Nascimento for their bouts at UFC on ESPN 36 this Saturday. Shortly after their first sparring session on Monday, Lima gave an exclusive interview to Sherdog.com, where he commented on the weigh-in controversy involving Oliveira that occurred last Friday. “Do Bronx” was stripped of the lightweight belt when he missed weight by 0.5 pounds but regained top contender status by submitting Justin Gaethje one day later.

"Since Charles went up to 155, we always go to sleep on Thursday with the weight made. In order to not have problems with different scale setups, this time, we didn’t bring our scale in order to follow the official one,” Lima said. “We even published a photo on our social media to make fans aware that Charles had already made weight Thursday night. Considering the natural weight loss during the night, we joked with the team that Charles would weigh 154 [pounds] the following morning."

According to the coach, Oliveira and his team went to their room, spent some time in the sauna and hit pads after the surprise weight miss.

"When we returned Charles weighed [0.6 pounds] over, then he took off his underpants and weighed [0.5 over],” Lima said. “We couldn't understand [what happened], and what made me really mad is that during this entire stressful situation, Gaethje´s head coach [Trevor Wittman], who was considered the No. 1 MMA coach in the world, was close to us talking loudly and screaming with the commissioners. I thought it was a total lack of respect, even though only the fighter and his corner are allowed to be on the scale. I´m sure the opposite would never be tolerated.”

Diego recalls that one of the most difficult moments was bringing Charles back when they returned to the room and he saw his father crying.

"Imagine what that means for a champion to see that after beating all the records, training so hard and doing everything right,” Lima said. “How you can get motivated knowing that no matter the result of the fight, you won’t carry your belt back home, being found guilty for a mistake that you didn’t commit. But thank God teammates and family were enough to motivate him.”

During all the drama, Lima recalled a conversation he had with Oliveira on Thursday morning.

"Charles told me he had a dream where God told him that the most difficult battle would be on the scale. In the Octagon, he would win in the first round,” Lima said. “Also, that Namajunas would lose her belt and Gaethje would be reckless. After the weight problem, I just thought about that. When the event was over, I was really impressed because everything Charles said really happened.”

According to Lima, the UFC was really supportive of Oliveira during the difficult moments they passed through.

"I have no complaints. All UFC staff gave us all support and respected us a lot,” he said. “The fact is that, even without the belt, Charles left UFC 274 bigger than before.”

The Chute Boxe leader revealed that Oliveira did exactly as they had planned during the UFC 274 main event.

"We knew that Gaethje would throw his left cross and use the calf kicks. Our goal was to keep the aggressive pace to get him on the ground and submit him, just like Charles did.”

Lima also commented on the four potential opponents – Conor McGregor, Islam Makhacehv, Beneil Dariush and Michael Chandler – that seem to be mentioned most in the aftermath of Oliveira’s latest victory.

“McGregor, Makhachev and Beneil make sense to us, but I don’t understand why some people are still mentioning Chandler,” Lima said. “No doubt he is an amazing athlete. But this guy has just four fights in UFC -- two wins and two losses. It doesn't make sense to make that rematch now.

“Either McGregor or the winner between Makhachev and Dariush would make sense to us.”