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New lightweight king of the UFC has been crowned
Both had different paths to the title match as Chandler (22-6) came into the fight after winning only one UFC fight while Oliviera had to wait for 10 years to get his first championship fight.
There was excitement around the main event of UFC 262. After Khabib Nurmagomedov retired from the sport last year and relinquished his belt, everyone wanted to know who will reign in the deeply-stacked lightweight division. UFC decided to hold a championship fight between Charles Oliveira and Michael Chandler to determine the new king of the division.
Both had different paths to the title match as Chandler (22-6) came into the contest after winning only one UFC fight (against Dan Hooker) while Oliveira had to wait for more than 10 years to get his first championship fight. And the fight did not disappoint the fans.
It looked like former Bellator champion Chandler had the better of Oliveira (31-8) in the first round after knocking him down with power punches and even countering the superior wrestling of the Brazilian. But Oliveira came back and came back hard.
Nobody expected Oliveira to be the better striker but that is where he surprised everyone. At the start of the second round, Oliveira stunned Chandler with a left hook from close distance. Chandler was knocked down and just could not recover as Oliveira seized his moment and continued to hit the American until referee Dan Miragliotta had to intervene. It was the perfect turnaround as the dominant striker was ultimately conquered with precise punches.
It was a dream come true for the 31-year-old Brazilian, who had to take the long journey towards success. He debuted in 2010, fought 28 times for the company before finally getting a chance to achieve his dreams. And when he got the opportunity, UFC's best submission artist seized it both hands.
"I wanted to come here and show that I'm the best in this division...I'm proving to everybody I'm the lion of lions," Oliveira said after his ninth straight UFC victory.
In the co-main event, Tony Ferguson had to endure his third straight loss in the UFC. The former interim lightweight champ was dominated by Beneil Dariush for three rounds.
