LAS VEGAS – Just one fight into his UFC career, Vinicius Oliveira shot a reasonably big shot Saturday in Las Vegas.
Oliveira (20-3 MMA, 1-0 UFC) outworked Ricky Simon (20-5 MMA, 8-4 UFC) for a unanimous decision to open up UFC 303 at T-Mobile Arena, the anchor of International Fight Week. Then he called out unbeaten bantamweight standout Umar Nurmagomedov, cousin of former UFC champ Khabib.
“I’d like to fight so much against Umar Nurmagomedov,” Oliveira said at his UFC 303 post-fight news conference. “He was changing some bad words on Instagram, on social media. But he’s scared of me right now. He must have watched my last fight here and he knows that it’s not easy to put me on the ground. I’m a nightmare for him.
“I think he will refuse to fight against me, so I would like to fight against Dominick Cruz, maybe, I know that (Nurmagomedov has a fight), but I think he was running away from me.”
While asking for Nurmagomedov may seem like Oliveira is fast-tracking himself, he’s got a plan in place.
“I don’t need many fights to fight for the belt,” he said. “I think in around two years, I’ll be fighting for the belt. And Dana (White) – Mr. D, how I say his name – Mr. D, my boss, he can put me to fight for the belt this year. The end of the year, I’ll be ready to fight for the belt, but he can choose all my fights that I’ll be prepared for anyone.”
Watch Oliveira’s full post-fight interview in the video above.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 303.
