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Michael Bisping has weighed in on the possibility of current lightweight king Charles Oliveira moving up a weight class to challenge Kamaru Usman for the welterweight title.
Speaking on the latest episode of his Believe You Me podcast, 'The Count' said that moving up to welterweight for a title shot may not fare well for 'Do Bronx'.
"I'm not hating on Charles Oliveira. He's a great champion and it's just amazing to see what he's done but Usman's the pound-for-pound number one on the goddamned planet for a reason. I mean, I get it. Of course... you wanna do that because he's still the 155-pound champ and if he goes up to 170, hurrah, big fight, lots of money, nothing to lose because he's still gonna be the champ. Same at 145... 155 is the optimal weight class for Charles Oliveira... it's 15 pounds up, 10 pounds down. It's a big jump, you know. The 10 pounds, 15 pounds, that's a big difference," said Michael Bisping.
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On a recent episode of MMA Fighting's Trocacao Franco podcast, Oliveira suggested he would be open to moving down to featherweight or up to welterweight in order to attain champ-champ status.
"If I had the opportunity to go straight for the 145-pound belt, I'd move down to fight. Also, if I had the opportunity to go straight for the 170-pound belt, I'd also move up to fight... Becoming a two-division champion, a Brazilian man, would be awesome."
Charles Oliveira and Kamaru Usman had amazing runs in 2021
2021 was a near-perfect year for lightweight champion Oliveira and welterweight king Usman.
'Do Bronx' won the lightweight title at UFC 262 by knocking out Michael Chandler. The Brazilian then successfully defended it against Dustin Poirier at UFC 269.
Usman, on the other hand, successfully defended his title thrice against Gilbert Burns, Jorge Masvidal and Colby Covington.
Both fighters were front-runners for the 'Fighter of the Year' titles awarded by multiple MMA media outlets. While it's unlikely to happen, it would be quite interesting to see the two champions will cross paths.
