Charles Oliveira and Arman Tsarukyan are putting it all on the line at one of the year’s biggest shows.
UFC CEO Dana White announced Sunday that Oliveira faces Tsarukyan in a lightweight bout at UFC 300 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. He added that the winner of the April 13 bout will become the No. 1 contender for champion Islam Makhachev, who White expects to return in the summer after recovering from an injury.
Oliveira was originally set to fight Makhachev at UFC 294 this past October, but a last-minute cut suffered in training forced him out of that main event spot (he was subsequently replaced by featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski, who lost to Makhachev via first-round knockout). “Do Bronx” first fought Makhachev at UFC 280 for a vacant lightweight title, which Makhachev won by submitting Oliveira in the second round.
In his most recent outing this past June, Oliveira scored a first-round TKO win over Beneil Dariush to earn a second crack at Makhachev. Now the former champion has to overcome an elite contender to regain that rematch opportunity.
Tsarukyan seeks his own rematch with Makhachev after losing a hard-fought decision to the current champion in his debut five years ago. Since that encounter, Tsarukyan has won eight of his past nine fights, including finishes of Dariush, Joaquim Silva, and Joel Alvarez.
UFC 300 is still yet to have an official headliner, with Jiri Prochazka vs. Aleksandar Rakic, Calvin Kattar vs. Aljamain Sterling, and Bo Nickal vs. Cody Brundage currently advertised for the event.