The UFC has finalized the next highly anticipated lightweight title matchup. ESPN’s Brett Okamoto was the first to report this afternoon that the promotion had finalized a matchup between champion Charles Oliveira and Justin Gaethje.
The matchup will headline UFC 274 on May 7th. Originally, the event was supposed to take place in Brazil. However, we’ve learned this week that it will likely take place in the United States.
We’ve already learned that UFC 274 will also have the light heavyweight title fight between Glover Teixeira and Jiri Prochazka. Now we know that this lightweight title fight will also take place.
Gaethje is coming off of huge win against Michael Chandler at UFC 268. That fight at UFC 268 was Gaethje’s first and only fight of 2021. That win came on the heels of his loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov the year before for the lightweight title.
Over the past couple of years, Gaethje has only lost to Dustin Poirier and Khabib. He’s proven over and over that he’s one of the best lightweights in the UFC.
UFC 274
Charles Oliveira is coming off of a successful title defense at UFC 269 against Dustin Poirier. Over the last year or so, it’s hard to find someone who’s been more successful or had a better 12 months than “Do Bronx”.
Oliveira had been on an incredible run, but what he did in the UFC between December 2020 and December 2021 was truly remarkable. He started out by dominating Tony Ferguson in a way that we’ve never seen before.
After that win, he stopped Michael Chandler at UFC 262 to become the lightweight champion of the world. Then, he had the biggest matchup of his career when he took on Dustin Poirier this past December. Virtually nobody was betting on Oliveira to retain his title in December.
However, Oliveira proved to the world that he’s the best lightweight in the UFC when he stopped Poirier. Now, he’s going to be taking on arguably the toughest man in the division while looking to successfully defend his title for the second time.