Chute Boxe Coach Predicts Finish for Charles Oliveira in UFC 317 Headliner

Preparations are nearly complete for Charles Oliveira’s lightweight title bid against Ilia Topuria in the UFC 317 main event.

Chute Boxe coach Diego Lima recently spoke with Sherdog about Oliveira’s training camp ahead of the bout, which will take place on June 28 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

"We are very focused on Topuria,” Lima said. “We are using several sparring partners who are his size. We invested a lot in boxing training for this fight considering Topuria's firepower.”

While Lima has already stated there is no bad blood between Chute Boxe and The Fighting Nerds following Ian Garry’s victory over Carlos Prates at UFC Kansas City, he was unable to accept Jean Silva’s offer to help Oliveira prepare for Topuria. However it’s possible that they could collaborate in the future.

“I really like Jean Silva, he knows that,” Lima said. “He’s a guy I have a lot of affection for and admire. I was really happy that he offered, but the fight was actually arranged at the last minute. We had our entire schedule set up, with a lot of things going on, but it ended up getting too busy and we weren’t able to train together. But the doors are open for us to train in the future because Jean is a guy I really support, and he has incredible talent.”

Lima has been impressed by the engagement of diehard fans leading up to the lightweight championship clash.

"We received messages from all over the world,” he said. “There was an American fan who did an absurd study in Artificial Intelligence, with graphs, drawings and even simulations of Charles and Topuria's blows as if they were fighting. Truly impressive. Obviously we have a technical team in each area helping us, but we receive and absorb everything — including the criticism.”

As far as Topuria’s statement that he would make Oliveira’s head explode, Lima preferred not to take the claim seriously.

“I think it’s part of the promotion,” Lima said. “About two months ago I was in Spain and met Topuria in person. We talked, and I found him to be very polite, very respectful and I have nothing bad to say about him. Topuria is coming into an incredible moment. He is undefeated coming off two sensational victories over Holloway and Volkanovski, two legends of the sport. So it’s part of the marketing to sell the fight, and the more he talks the better to sell the fight and bring more excitement.”

Lima doesn’t expect Oliveira vs. Topuria to go the full 25 minutes.

“It won’t end on points,” he said. “Charles is always looking to end the fight. He doesn’t fight to avoid losing, just like Topuria, so I don’t see this fight going to the end of 25 minutes. I believe Charles will win by knockout or submission.”

If his athlete wins, Diego believes his next fight will be with Arman Tsarukyan. The Brazilian also criticized Justin Gaethje’s stance, who had threatened to retire if the UFC didn’t give him the title shot next.

“So I think Gaethje should retire,” Lima said. “Gaethje is undoubtedly a very tough guy and deserves respect for his trajectory, but the fact is that he had many opportunities. But Arman is undoubtedly ahead of him. It wouldn’t make sense for Gaethje to get ahead of him, unless the two of them make it to a title eliminator and Gaethje wins.”

In the welterweight division, the Chute Boxe leader expects that Islam Makhachev will beat Jack Della Maddalena but will not be able to reign in the welterweight division as he did at lightweight.

“I take my hat off to Makhachev because just by moving up he is proving how tough he is,” Lima said. “He was in a category where he was dominating, so there was no reason to move up. He went to an extremely difficult division, which is going through one of the most difficult moments in its history. In addition to Maddalena, there is Garry, [Michael] Morales, Shavkat [Rakhmonov], Belal [Muhammad], [Sean] Brady. I see him beating Maddalena, but I don’t see him reigning in the division.”