Charles Oliveira responds to praise from Khabib Nurmagomedov: “All due respect, I delivered, and I feel ready to challenge you for the gold”

By Adam D Martin - January 17, 2021

Charles Oliveira responded to praise from UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, saying that he deserves to fight for the belt next.

Charles Oliveira

Oliveira has won eight straight fights in the UFC lightweight division, including a dominant decision victory over Tony Ferguson at UFC 256. After defeating Ferguson, Oliveira called for a lightweight title shot. The problem is, of course, the division is currently in a holding pattern, waiting for Nurmagomedov to decide what he wants to do. The UFC lightweight champion is essentially retired but has admitted that he could be coaxed into having one more fight.

On Friday, Nurmagomedov and White held their recent meeting in Abu Dhabi, and on Saturday at UFC on ABC 1, White explained what the champ told him. According to the UFC president, Nurmagomedov is going to wait and see what happens at UFC 257 next weekend between Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier before deciding what he wants to do. But according to White, Nurmagomedov also made sure to mention that he was impressed by what Oliveira is doing.

While “Do Bronx” was happy to hear the kind words from the champ, that’s not what he really wants. What Oliveira wants is a title shot against Nurmagomedov, and he didn’t mince words when he posted a message to his Twitter following UFC on ABC 1. Check out what Oliveira said below.

Thank you @TeamKhabib . All due respect, I delivered, and I feel ready to challenge you for the gold. Let’s go! I hope to see you soon.

Considering Oliveira has the longest win streak in the lightweight division outside of Nurmagomedov, there is no doubt he has earned the right to compete for the title. The problem, however, is that even though Oliveira deserves to fight for the belt based on his win streak, it still might not be enough to convince Nurmagomedov to come out of retirement to fight him.

Do you think Charles Oliveira should get the next lightweight title shot?