5 times that Charles Oliveira surprised his opponents in the UFC

This weekend sees UFC lightweight kingpin Charles Oliveira return to the octagon as he defends his title against Dustin Poirier in the main event of UFC 269.

Charles Oliveira has been a UFC star since 2010. While he took the long route to the top, he’s made a habit of surprising his opponents inside the octagon over the years.

Whether that’s by catching them in submissions out of nowhere or demonstrating surprising power in his hands to take them out by knockout, ‘Do Bronx’ is a master of throwing fighters off their own gameplan and then finding a way to defeat them.

Can Charles Oliveira do the same to Poirier this weekend? Only time will tell, but judging by his past octagon showings, it’s definitely possible.

With that considered, here are five times that Charles Oliveira surprised his opponents inside the octagon.

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#5. Charles Oliveira vs. Kevin Lee – UFC Fight Night 170

Charles Oliveira caught Kevin Lee off guard with a beautiful guillotine in their fight in 2020

By early 2020, Charles Oliveira had established himself as a highly dangerous lightweight contender. However, he still had a reputation for being a bit of a glass cannon, something that Kevin Lee was expected to take advantage of in their clash at UFC Fight Night 170.

At the time, ‘The Motown Phenom’ was coming off one of the best knockouts of his career over Gregor Gillespie. More to the point, with his tremendous wrestling, improving boxing and strong top game, he looked like a horrible matchup for Oliveira.

Early on in the fight, it looked like those hunches were correct. Charles Oliveira went for his trademark submission attacks, but Lee was able to avoid them,. By the second round, it looked like ‘Do Bronx’ was slowing down as Lee began to use his ground-and-pound attack.

Lee came out confidently for the third round, but when he shot in for a takedown, he made a horrendous mistake, leaving his neck slightly open. It was the opening that Oliveira required and he quickly synched up a guillotine choke, literally out of nowhere.

‘The Motown Phenom’ attempted to fight off the hold, but quickly ended up tapping out, something he then denied after the fight, suggesting that he was actually on the verge of passing out anyway.

Sure, it wasn’t shocking to see Charles Oliveira submit Lee in this fashion, but to see him do it once ‘The Motown Phenom’ had begun to get comfortable was mightily impressive. There was no disputing the idea that Lee never saw it coming.

#4. Charles Oliveira vs. Darren Elkins – UFC on Versus 2

Charles Oliveira submitted Darren Elkins in under a minute in his UFC debut

When Charles Oliveira signed with the UFC in 2010, he came in as a fresh-faced 20-year old with an impressive MMA record of 12-0. However, he didn’t look like the most physically imposing fighter, giving opponent Darren Elkins plenty of hope when he was matched against ‘Do Bronx’ for the Brazilian’s debut.

Sure enough, within seconds of the fight's beginning, it was clear that ‘The Damage’ wanted to impose his strength and power on Oliveira. Closing the distance, he lifted ‘Do Bronx’ into the air before slamming him down at a high angle.

However, moments later it became clear that Elkins was painfully out of his depth on the ground with the newcomer.

Oliveira threw his legs up, caught Elkins in a picture-perfect triangle choke and before the American had time to react, switched out into a straight armbar to force ‘The Damage’ to tap out.

The whole fight lasted just 41 seconds. Elkins was clearly caught by surprise by the speed and ferocity of Oliveira’s submission attack. Fans had expected ‘Do Bronx’ to be good, but not that good, something that many other fighters found out in the years that followed.

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#3: Charles Oliveira vs. Jared Gordon – UFC Fight Night 164

Charles Oliveira stunned Jared Gordon with his knockout power in 2019

While Charles Oliveira had always been a willing striker, prior to 2019, he’d never really demonstrated true knockout power in his hands.

That changed when he stopped Nik Lentz via TKO in the second round of their fight that May. At the time, it felt fair to write that fight off as a fluke. After all, Lentz was past his prime and the finish had also come in a pretty wild brawl.

Therefore, when ‘Do Bronx’ was matched with Jared Gordon six months later, most fans expected him to look to unleash his usual submission attacks, rather than attempt to stand and bang with ‘Flash’. That theory was proven painfully wrong after just over a minute of the fight.

A brief exchange on the ground saw Gordon quickly scramble free of a potential submission attempt and on the feet, it was clear that he felt safe. That turned out to be far from the truth.

As Gordon lunged forward, Oliveira landed a short right hand that dropped him to a knee and then followed with a brutal uppercut that knocked him absolutely silly.

While nobody could claim Gordon was an elite-level 155lber, this was still an eye-opening performance. That's because Charles Oliveira had proven that he could finish a fight not only on the ground, but on the feet too, instantly transforming him into one of the division’s most deadly fighters.

#2. Charles Oliveira vs. Eric Wisely – UFC on Fox 2

Charles Oliveira used a calf slicer to leave Eric Wisely in agony in 2012

By the beginning of 2012, it was clear based on his early UFC showings that Charles Oliveira wasn’t the kind of fighter that opponents wanted to tangle with on the ground.

The Brazilian’s submissions of Darren Elkins, Efrain Escudero and Nik Lentz had been hugely impressive and it was clear that if an opponent gave their back to ‘Do Bronx’, they were probably about to be choked. Matched with Oliveira at UFC on Fox 2, debutant Eric Wisely appeared to recognize this and looked to avoid any kind of ground exchange with the Brazilian.

However, when he attempted to scramble free of ‘Do Bronx’ in the opening round, Oliveira grabbed his leg and looked to drag him into a heel hook. Wisely had clearly scouted the move and did a great defensive job by rolling through and avoiding a kneebar in the process.

Incredibly, though, Oliveira saw another opportunity. As ‘Little Lee’ attempted to pull his leg free, ‘Do Bronx’ locked up the first calf slicer in UFC history and forced him to tap out in sheer agony.

Prior to this, nobody had really attempted a calf slicer in the octagon, let alone used one to finish a fight. Not only had Oliveira taken Wisely by surprise with a seriously low-percentage move, he’d also written himself into UFC history in the process.

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#1. Charles Oliveira vs. Michael Chandler – UFC 262

Charles Oliveira proved he was no glass cannon by taking out Michael Chandler to win the UFC lightweight title

The big knock on Charles Oliveira during his decade-long UFC career was always that he was somewhat of a glass cannon; spectacular on offense, but simply unable to absorb punishment in return.

By the time he found himself in a UFC lightweight title bout against Michael Chandler at UFC 262 this May, ‘Do Bronx’ was on an eight-fight win streak, but nagging doubts still remained. After all, in those eight fights, nobody had really been able to hurt the Brazilian, meaning there were still question marks around his toughness.

Those questions appeared to have been answered by Chandler in the early going of their fight. He dropped Oliveira badly in the opening round and then punished him with some truly brutal ground-and-pound that appeared to have the Brazilian on the verge of being finished.

Unlike in his earlier UFC fights, though, ‘Do Bronx’ somehow hung on and managed to survive the round, even if he looked wobbly heading back to his corner. It seemed like only a matter of time before Chandler put him away.

However, when the second round began, Oliveira stunned everyone by landing a crushing left hand that dropped the former Bellator champion.

Unlike Chandler, ‘Do Bronx’ was able to finish his fallen foe, hammering him with punches until he was completely done.

This was a truly remarkable turnaround from Charles Oliveira, but most importantly, it was one that nobody saw coming. Not only did Oliveira display his knockout power again, but this time he showed toughness and durability that we’d never seen from him before, something that may well help him against Poirier this weekend.