On August 23, 2015, Oliveira and “Blessed” had a featherweight bout in Saskatoon. The fight ended abruptly after just one minute and 39 seconds. Oliveira suffered a ruptured esophagus and Holloway got the TKO win.
Diego Lima was present that evening as coach for Felipe Arantes. At the time, Lima was not coaching Oliveira, but the two were already friends. In an interview with MMAFighting.comLima thought back to the night Oliveira suffered his unusual injury.
“It was all very strange,” Lima said. “Really crazy how it happened. So much so that even today no one knows what really happened. The hospital wouldn’t let him leave or return to Brazil because they couldn’t find out exactly what the problem was, he still had that paralysis. It was something very serious that no one had ever found out.”
Lima recalled that the fight never really had a chance to get going given how quickly Oliveira’s injury occurred.
“If you look at the fight, he wasn’t hit, nothing happened,” Lima said. “He walks back, feels something and leans against the fence. It’s not like, ‘Man, he’s getting beat up in this fight.’ None of that. The fight hadn’t even really developed yet. It was just starting to find its rhythm.”
More than a decade has passed since that fight, and it’s clear that both Holloway and Oliveira have gone on to become MMA legends. Both men went on to win UFC titles and are surefire future Hall of Famers. Their fight scheduled for March 7 will be contested for the BMF Championship.
Do you remember the first fight between Charles Oliveira and Max Holloway? What was your first reaction when it happened live? Take a walk down memory lane in the comments section below.
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