Charles Oliveira will not have his head coach in his corner when he battles Tony Ferguson in the co-main event of UFC 256.
Diego Lima revealed to UFC Brazil he tested positive before flying from Brazil to Las Vegas. So, unfortunately, for Oliveira, he will have to fight without his head coach in his corner.
“Since I had no symptoms, and at the same time we’re all excited for a fight we asked so much for, we can’t even believe when something like this happens,” Lima told UFC.com. “I did other tests, but they came back positive too, so there was no other way out.”
Although Lima can’t corner Charles Oliveira in arguably the biggest fight of his career, their team isn’t worried about it. Instead, they are confident Oliveira will be fine without him in his corner.
“Don’t worry,” Lima says he told Oliveira. “Focus on the fight, focus on the goal. God knows all things and whatever has to be, it will be. We will respect it, we will believe it, and we will go for the win no matter what.”
Charles Oliveira enters this scrap on a seven-fight winning streak and picked up the biggest win of his career last time out as he submitted Kevin Lee in the main event of UFC Brasilia. During this run, he holds wins over Clay Guida, Nik Lentz, Jim Miller, and Jared Gordon.
However, a knock on Oliveira is many believe he falters when he gets a big step-up in competition as evident by his losses to Max Holloway, Paul Felder, and Anthony Pettis.
Yet, for Charles Oliveira, he can silence all those critics if he can beat Tony Ferguson on Saturday. If he does get the win without his head coach in his corner, he immediately becomes a top contender for a title fight at lightweight.
