Less is More: How Charles Oliveira Reinvented Himself

A Look at the Toolbox

Less is More: How Charles Oliveira Reinvented Himself

A Look at the Toolbox

(originally written Dec. 12, 2021)

Charles Oliveira is a special type of fighter. When speaking of indomitable champions and legendary figures of the fightgame, we’re often treated to images of pristine records and nearly flawless runs. Our minds conjure up names like Georges St-Pierre, Khabib Nurmagomedov, and more recently Kamaru Usman; fighters who we can barely imagine losing, or are quick to justify their old losses away. Charles Oliveira, on the other hand, is a fighter we’ve seen lose time and time again. Charles Oliveira is a guy whose durability and heart have been questioned, and with reason. Moreover, “Do Bronx'' is a fighter who has come back from defeat again and again, who has reinvented himself through new tactics and refined old tactics, and who has climbed his way to the top. Charles Oliveira is a true testament to the word “Champion”.

Coming into the premiere fighting organization at 20 years of age, Oliveira was obviously a top level talent, even in his inexperience. Though, as we’ve seen on countless occasions - the octagon isn’t the best place to grow up. The bright lights aside, fighting the best of the best (by and large) while you’re attempting to develop your skillset and round out your shortcomings can lead to disastrous consequences and derailed careers. Oliveira came into the UFC as an established jiujitsu fighter, like many of his Brazilian contemporaries, he came from destitute beginnings - getting jiujitsu instruction as part of a social program to keep impoverished youth off the street. Oliveira had received his black belt 2 years into his professional fighting career, and was soon rewarded with an opportunity on the big stage. His game was far from polished, but his skills were strikingly apparent, making his debut against Darren Elkins way back in 2010, Oliveira showed why there was so much excitement associated with his name. Elkins, a strong and tenacious wrestler, came out early and took Oliveira down with little resistance, however before even hitting the ground, Oliveira was using his frames to create space and recover guard. From there the 20 year old began to go to work, transitioning from a lightning fast triangle attempt to a tight armbar - Oliveira submitted the more veteran Elkins within the very first minute of the fight. Undoubtedly a stellar debut, the Brazilian “Do Bronx'' still left a lot to be desired, holes which he would fill in throughout his career.

Examining Oliveira’s early fights in the UFC, one can immediately notice some bad habits and technical flaws. Predominantly his wrestling defense, his underdeveloped striking, and a touch of recklessness very befitting of a 20 year old prizefighter. His lack of refinement led to his tendency to give ground easily, retreating on straight lines and often running back further than he needed to. Obviously, sprinting backwards is a prevalent issue across the entirety of MMA, but the less experienced Oliveira would run himself onto the fence whereby he would often find himself on the receiving end of a blitz, or in prime position to be taken down. Very much falling into the trope of “I don’t care if you take me down”-style BJJ fighters, Oliveira found himself playing bottom a lot - something you don’t want to do in modern mixed martial arts - even if you are Charles Oliveira and have an incredibly active, offensive guard. As far as judging is concerned; Bottom = losing. On the feet, however, Oliveira found himself attracted to flash more so than function; opting to throw jump switch knees at random inadvertently collapsing distance, and getting stuck in a clinch where he’s disadvantaged. And while Oliveira has always had a number of solid offensive weapons, his defense was generally lacking. While some of these problems have shored themselves up, others are still as wanting. 

Fast forward 11 years and 28(!) fights later, the Charles Oliveira of today is unrecognizable. Literally. The bleached blonde hair and the slew of new tattoos have coincided with Oliveira’s reinvention of himself -  making his progression visibly trackable. Most recently, against Dustin Poirier, Oliveira put his belt on the line for the first time - against one of his toughest opponents to date. For someone who has fought the likes of Frankie Edgar, Max Holloway, Anthony Pettis, and Tony Ferguson that’s saying something. Poirier, riding high off of two stoppage wins over waning superstar Conor McGregor and a Fight of the Year contender against Dan Hooker since his last title challenge, came in as a betting favorite, and was largely picked as the heir apparent to the throne by a majority of fans and media outlets alike. The only person in the MMA-Sphere ostensibly not counting out Oliveira, was Poirier himself. Seemingly at a large striking disadvantage, considering Poirier to be one of the premiere boxers in the division, Oliveira was expected to shoot early and often, something which hasn’t typically been his strength. While Oliveira’s takedowns are serviceable and quite technical in their own right, his wrestling game has never been phenomenal. However, the new wrinkles Oliveira has added to his game were given the perfect spotlight on the night of UFC 269, December 11th, 2021.

Tools of the Trade: Pressure

Oliveira has always liked applying pressure. Moving forward and attempting to keep opponents just at the end of his weapons, forcing them towards the cage and into uncomfortable territory. Earlier in his career, Oliveira had trouble controlling distance, often attempting to pressure and winding up in ranges he wouldn’t prefer to strike from or getting smothered in double-unders with someone’s forehead under his chin. However, on his recent run - up to, and including the Poirier fight - Oliveira has made expert adjustments and all but mastered his distance management. Keeping opponents on their backfoot has a number of advantages; it’s easier to strike moving forwards, you’re taking away a lot of their big power weapons (kicks, overhands), and forcing them backwards towards the cage. That being said, perhaps one of the most lucrative dividends that pressure fighting presents is forcing a reaction - when a fighter is put on the back foot and they feel as if the distance is imploding on them, they’ll often fire back with something big to try and get the opponent off of them and try to reclaim some ground. This type of tactic is how fighters like Conor McGregor have made their name, forcing opponents to attack and countering them with deadly precision. Oliveira, too, has adopted some fun tactics once his opponents feel claustrophobic enough to hastily attack. Most notably Do Bronx will use these big returns as an opportunity to enter into a clinch. Against Paul Felder for example, Oliveira pressed Felder backwards and threw a leg kick - initiating Felder to respond with a 3-2 combination - Oliveira, preempting it, ensured he was out of range for the lead hook and subsequently slipped the rear hand while stepping in onto a bodylock clinch from where he was able to quickly take away Felder’s base and force him to the mat. Against Poirier specifically, Oliveira utilized his pressure to force responses from The Diamond that would result in crashes to the collar tie clinch.

Tools of the Trade: Short Weapons

It’s been no secret that Charles Oliveira is a fan of the “Thai clinch”, or striking with one or two collar ties, but it is safe to say that he’s refined his clinch striking to its highest level (yet). Following Oliveira’s pressure meta, he often timed Poirier coming in by catching him in a double collar tie clinch, from there he fired off picture perfect knees into the sternum and liver of Poirier in quick succession. In one of their first exchanges, Do Bronx caught Poirier in the double collar ties and rattled off a few rapid fire uppercuts and attempted to transition to throwing knees but Poirier showed his acumen and, in an attempt to defend his posture, temporarily lifted Oliveira off his feet before the latter was forced to give up the clinch and push away. Later in the first round, Oliveira was able to chase Poirier down, moving around his lead leg as to gain an advantageous angle, slipped a heavy left hand and returned with a lead hook to right straight combination where he left the lead hand out to transition into a collar tie, engaging in another clinch to throw another big knee to Poirier’s midsection.

Being a tall and lanky fighter, Oliveira has found a lot of success with his long tools - front kicks, straight punches, etc. - but as a fighter whose primary goal is to close distance and envelop opponents until he can either find a choke or any finish that presents itself, these tools became counterproductive. As of late, he has developed a number of short weapons that have served him very well. Notably, the tight left hook that won him his championship belt against Michael Chandler back in May of 2021. This time out he showed that same left hook, using it in combination with his right straight in response to Poirier’s own offensive flurries, to grant himself a reprieve, as well as newer weapons. Almost immediately once the fight began Oliveira started using his long and short tools in perfect succession, so as to keep Poirier on the backfoot and unsure of the range the fight would be contested at. Opening with a jump front kick, Oliveira exchanged a right hand with Poirier who utilized his trademark shifting left hand into right hook combination, as Poirier attempted another trademark of his, the “Philly shell” (or the “Hillbilly Shoulder Roll” as it’s been nicknamed for Dustin) - a guard where the lead hand is pronated with the hand by the belly button and the shoulder rotated inwards with the chin tucked firmly behind it, while the rear hand is up by the eyebrow with the forearms out front to catch blows - however, Do Bronx, having studied Poirier intimately, used an interesting tactic of controlling the lead hand wrist, effectively taking the shoulder roll out of play and attacking with a close range elbow with the wrist gripping arm. As is often the case in orthodox vs southpaw match-ups, the hand fighting became a major factor from the gate, and Oliveira was able to capitalize multiple times off it. 

Even early in his career, Oliveira’s game was always a two-pronged threat, he would attempt to force his opponents back to the cage and lock in his double collars where his opponents would either; maintain good posture and eat knees to the midsection and elbows off of the ¾ Nelson, or the forearm framing off the neck and shoulder, or; concede their posture to attempt to engage in grappling entanglements or, as a result of the knees, give up the guillotine, anaconda, or d’arce chokes that Oliveira is oh so adept at. This combination of offensive tactics put his opponents in a tough position, however higher level fighters were often undeterred by Oliveira’s classic Chute Box looks. Most notably, Frankie Edgar, Max Holloway, and Cub Swanson were able to comfortably outbox Oliveira - taking advantage of the midrange game that Oliveira’s long and short weapons leave him unprepared for. More so than simply outboxing the younger Do Bronx, these fighters were able to confound him with footwork and superior movement. We briefly touched on Oliveira’s movement earlier, not only defensively, but offensively, he found himself prone to moving in and out in straight lines, with generally poor ringcraft - or the ability to cut off the movement of his foes in his attempts to pressure and crowd them. However, while Oliveira’s footwork has undoubtedly improved since those fights, as was evident against Poirier, it still leaves a lot to be desired, with his pressure sometimes bordering on reckless abandon. With that noted, an opponent like Poirier seemed, on paper, to be nightmarish for Oliveira, he moves well with awkward yet brutally effective footwork, shifting combinations, and supremely talented boxing, both offensive and defensive (even if he does abandon that defense sometimes and revert to his own bad habits). So, how did Oliveira successfully vanquish Poirier using roughly the same skillset that saw him start his UFC career with a 10-8 record?

Adding another facet to his game, not only was his threat two-pronged, but he’s expanded upon it - layering it effectively on all levels. Being the one to dictate the pace, range, and distance that a fight is contested at is a very powerful position to be in; and Oliveira makes sure not to waste those opportunities he creates for himself. Using every opportunity to clinch and knee Poirier on the way in, while keeping him moving backwards and feeling uncomfortable, Charles Oliveira was able to add a new look we haven’t seen from him before - the rear uppercut. This was a phenomenal read by Charles and his team, more so than an excellent read; it was exceptionally executed by Do Bronx against, again, a very tough challenger in Dustin Poirier. As we noted earlier, Poirier has this tendency to shift through off of his southpaw left hand into orthodox where he typically unleashes either a heavy right overhand or a powerful right hook. Though, typically this wouldn’t be something one would see in a high level boxing bout, it is a high level technique for mma boxing as it takes advantage of the constant straight line retreating we see at even the highest levels. Oliveira and his team noticed that while Poirier shifts in, he dips his head to avoid any straight shots an opponent may be firing back with, keeping himself out of harm's way and in prime position to unload a powerful attack to his presumably retreating opposition. Oliveira, on the other hand, didn’t retreat. He’d avoid the left hand, time the shift, and frame with the ¾ Nelson / forearm frame we touched on earlier, and fire off his own powerful rear uppercut which popped Poirier’s head up like a Pez Dispenser the few times it landed in the first round. Poirier being the educated and experienced striker he is though, adjusted accordingly (and masterfully) to this newer, less polished tool of Oliveiras, and timed a beautiful pull counter that dropped Oliveira just moments later in the round. Which brings us to Oliveira’s next trick…

Tools of the Trade: Bodyshots and The Ground Game

As we noted earlier, Oliveira’s length and height serve him very well and more or less dictate his distance weapons. However in this fight, Oliveira was at his suffocating best - mixing up his heavy clinch strikes, his unrelenting pressure, and a slew of long distance weapons to keep Poirier in whichever range Oliveira wanted. Moving backwards for extended periods of time is hard enough, moving backwards while front kicks are stabbing at your midsection is another beast entirely. Oliveira has always loved his push kicks, a Muay Thai staple, but never before has he used them so perfectly in combination with his other tools - aside from maybe against Kevin Lee. Oliveira used his rear leg front kick to pierce through to Poirier’s solar plexus, gut, or general midsection at nearly every opportunity. In combination with timing clinch entries and throwing ruthless knees to the body therein, any time Oliveira would step back to distance he’d start lancing The Diamond with his teep. Effectively keeping him at the end of Oliveira’s reach, and pushing him backwards in the process, thereby not giving a power puncher like Poirier time to plant his feet and start throwing the combinations he’s widely known for. This unholy combination of body hitting sapped a tremendous amount of energy from Poirier, exhausting him much quicker than we’ve ever seen before. Poirier is a fighter who can, and has, gone five hard rounds swinging almost exclusively power punches (against Dan Hooker; if you haven’t seen that fight, do yourself a favor and set aside half an hour). But Oliveira effectively neutralized that gas tank, turning the tide in his favor. Though, it must be said, the front kick has put Oliveira in trouble before, and even during this fight. If an opponent gets his timing, or if he even just throws it out haphazardly, they can time a heavy overhand over the top - which has wobbled and dropped Oliveira on past occasions. At one point in the first round, when Oliveira seemed to be really locking into his rhythm, he threw a lazy front kick to the body and Poirier responded perfectly with a heavy left that stung the champion, briefly turning the tide and giving Poirier the opportunity to throw punches in bunches as he’s known to do.

The damage accruing, for both, created the need for new avenues. Oliveira utilized a few takedown attempts, half-hearted though they may have been, to at least give Poirier another element to concern himself with. Punching his way in with a 2-3 combination, Oliveira closed distance on a cornered Poirier before changing his levels and entering on his hips. Naturally, however, anyone fighting Charles Oliveira likely spends a significant amount of their camp defending takedowns - and with a camp like ATT and a defensive wrestling game like Poirier’s he was able to defend the shot from Oliveira with relative ease. However, later in that same sequence, Oliveira was able to utilize the clinch that Poirier pulled him back up into to land one of the hardest knees of the fight. From there he attempted to work towards a bodylock takedown, initially threatening to reap the outer leg a la Khabib Nurmagomedov, he then transitioned to pressuring the now forward leaning Poirier down to the mat, using another Khabib/Islam trick of driving the lead leg in between Poirier’s legs and using it as a fulcrum to leverage Poirier over - which was repudiated with a whizzer kick - Oliveira was briefly able to threaten the back as part of the ensuing scramble. Poirier, obviously having spent the last few months drilling this position, and this position alone, ad nauseam, was able to turn in and start to scrape Oliveira off of him - which led to Oliveira dumping right over the top of Poirier and ending up on his back beneath a standing Dustin Poirier. Once Poirier committed to throwing strikes to the downed Oliveira, Do Bronx opened up his bag of tricks. Catching the right hand and utilizing a 2-on-1 grip, Oliveira threw up one of his favorite combinations from the guard - triangle to omoplata. Poirier, a black belt himself, easily postured his way out of the triangle attempt, but in pulling himself up and back, he left his isolated arm vulnerable to an Oliveira transition to the omoplata position. Though he was unable to fully achieve a parallel angle to Poirier and cinch up a true omoplata, he sat perpendicular to him, putting pressure on the shoulder and using the triangling leg to leverage Poirier’s head upwards - inversely pushing Oliveira’s own hips downwards and applying heavier pressure to the figure four lock. Poirier, obviously feeling the pressure on his shoulder, rolled forwards into his own guard.

While there is still some controversy over an apparent glove grab, it was apparent that even if there was one (which was pretty difficult to discern based on the camera angle), it was brief and couldn’t have significantly affected the sequence of events thereafter. Oliveira switched off to a baseball bat grip on the wrist anyhow, and Dustin rolled forwards as we noted. This was Oliveira’s moment to seize, and seize it he did. While he found a high amount of success in the first round with the weapons we’ve discussed so far, it wasn’t without taking heavy shots from a high level finisher in Poirier. Something best if avoided, and if you have the grappling of Charles Oliveira, you’d want to use it any opportunity possible. His top game was at its crushing best in this fight. Smothering Poirier, Oliveira constantly kept the pressure on his foe, maintaining frames on his chin, and ensuring that his hands were constantly in The Diamonds face - obscuring his abilities to breathe, see, and most importantly, brace for shots. Oliveira used this dominant position to rain down heavy, thudding elbows. Unlike Tony Ferguson, who likes to use slashing elbows that seem to glide right through an opponent - from both top and bottom positions - Oliveira effectively clubbed Poirier with blunt elbow strikes that almost came down perfectly straight. If Poirier wasn’t beginning to gas already, the prolonged assault on the ground took just about everything left out of the resilient, pressure-formed Diamond.

The finishing sequence almost needs no discussion, as it was classic Charles Oliveira. But, the duck-under Oliveira hit to get to the back was truly a thing of beauty, so we’ll touch on it. The round began with an obvious edge towards Oliveira, Poirier was uncharacteristically tired, and conceded center position to Charles nearly immediately. Oliveira threw another front kick to the body for good measure, then a  few long punches to the head while attempting to avoid returns from Poirier before attempting a big front kick to the head, as Poirier stepped offline Oliveira followed. Pawing at the lead hand before throwing the 2 and anticipating a return lead hook, Oliveira ducked in on a double leg and then turned to the back as Poirier began attempting to defend. At this point, it was all but over, Oliveira pressured into Poirier - making him carry his weight and draining even more energy from him, before climbing to the back as he’s done so many times before. After some handfighting, Oliveira sunk the choke in, and sunk it in deep, forcing the tap from his toughest opponent to date. In doing so, he defended his world title, proved countless doubters wrong, and legitimized himself in the eyes of the wider audience he’d yet to be exposed to on his title run. It was a phenomenal fight between two fantastic fighters.

Of the many tools Oliveira showed off that night; pressure and ring generalship, short and long range weapons, and of course a grappling game unparalleled in the lightweight division - perhaps none were more effective than the intangibles Oliveira brought with him Saturday night in Las Vegas. Of course, we’re talking about Oliveira’s confidence, something that has plagued him in past fights. Earlier in his career, Oliveira could honestly be appraised as a quitter, or a frontrunner to be more succinct. When Oliveira was playing his game, doing the things he does so well, he was content to hang in and keep it up. When things weren’t going his way, on the other hand, he would almost capitulate to what seemed to be a dominant will, and give in to his opponents gameplan. However, on his current run Oliveira’s confidence has been at an all time high, perhaps due to his increased comfort in the striking realm, or perhaps it has to do with his magic rock, that’s for him to know and us to wonder. But in hanging tough in a controlled slugfest with one of the better boxers in the sport, Oliveira showed all of us that he’s no quitter, and that an undeniably self-assured Charles Oliveira is a dangerous, dangerous man.

…

Takeaways: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugh-ly

The Good: Oliveira’s reliance on the fundamentals. He threw predominantly “basic” strikes, but at a very high level, and to great effect on a highly-regarded opponent. Aside from an errant flying knee and spinning backfist, Oliveira put on a very meat-and-potatoes performance. Sticking with right straights, left hooks, front kicks, knees, and elbows over the top, Oliveira wasn’t reinventing the wheel, but he was systematically breaking down one of the best lightweights of his era.

The Bad: Perhaps this is an unpopular opinion, and seemingly inconsistent with the previous comments, but Oliveira’s lack of diversity. That’s not to say that his striking fundamentals weren’t on point and clinically precise, but the lack of jabs - a tool that could greatly benefit a long, rangy fighter like Oliveira - and lack of leg kicks left the performance just shy of being considered “the most complete of any male champion’s (so far)”. It is my opinion that by using more leg kicks in the fight he could have made it an easier night for himself, but obviously that’s just conjecture and for all we know he might’ve been caught by a Dustin Poirier left hook from hell if he tried.

The Ugh-ly: The striking defense, of course. While Oliveira used his head movement pretty effectively at a few points during the fight, he just as often left his head planted on the centerline for Poirier to crack. A dangerous proposition against future opponents like Justin Gaethje, or even potentially (for some reason) Conor McGregor.

How does Oliveira fare against Gaethje? Will the legkicks present problems

for him, or will his light lead leg neutralize Garth? Can Oliveira takedown

foes like Gaethje, Makhachev, or Dariush? Will he ever get contacts? Give me your takes!