UFC 269: Charles Oliveira retains title vs. Dustin Poirier
LAS VEGAS -- Charles Oliveira defended his lightweight title for the first time with a third-round stoppage victory over Dustin Poirier by standing rear naked choke in the main event of UFC 269.
After Julianna Pena's upset of Amanda Nunes in the co-main event, Oliveira (32-8, 1 no-contest) survived a rough fight with Poirier (28-7, 1 no-contest) to improve to 10-0 with nine stoppage victories since 2017.
Poirier battered the champ with punches in the first round and knocked him down twice, but Oliveira took control on the ground in the second round with a series of vicious elbows. He finished the fight with 3:58 left in the third by attaching himself to Poirier's back and forcing him to tap while standing up.
“We respect each other a lot,” Oliveira said through a translator. “But I was going to have my arm raised, and that's what happened. ... I want to make history. I want to leave a legacy, and I plan to show people that I can.”
Oliveira finally claimed the belt last May in his 28th UFC fight -- the longest wait for a title in the promotion's history and the culmination of an epic journey by a Brazilian veteran who overcame poverty and childhood illness to become an elite jiu-jitsu practitioner and mixed martial artist.
Oliveira set the UFC record for stoppage victories by beating Michael Chandler with punches, and his finish of Poirier increased the record to 18. Oliveira's 10-fight winning streak is the second-longest active string in the UFC, trailing only Kamaru Usman's 15 straight.
Oliveira and White both said the champ's next defense is likely to be against Justin Gaethje, the entertaining brawler who held the interim title in 2020.
Poirier already had a spectacular 2021 with his two victories over Conor McGregor, erasing the vaunted former champion's winning mystique and making two enormous paychecks for decisive stoppage wins. Poirier's only other loss in his last 11 fights since 2016 was to Khabib Nurmagomedov, who took away Poirier's interim lightweight title before retiring undefeated.
“It ruins the dream outcome that I had planned, to forever be a world champion after tonight,” Poirier said. “But the year isn't ruined. An opportunity I had is ruined, and that's all right. It is what it is. I'll look in the mirror like a man.”
