Charles Oliveira Film Study
Former UFC lightweight champion Charles Oliveira is one of the best fighters on the planet. His wins over Justin Gaethje, Dustin Poirier and Michael Chander have propelled him to the No. 4 spot on the UFC men’s pound-for-pound rankings.
In preparation for Oliveira’s UFC 280 matchup with Islam Makhachev, it was only right to do a film study on Oliveira. This film study will take a look at the minor details of Oliveira’s game and analyzes two of his biggest strengths and weaknesses. Make sure to watch the YouTube video below as the visual aspect goes a long way in explaining the information, but I will offer a brief recap in this post as well.
Strength One: Clinch Work
Oliveira’s biggest strength is his clinch work.
To summarize this briefly, Oliveira uses a variety of different tools in the clinch to keep his opponents guessing. It starts with his takedowns. Since he has great BJJ and gets his takedowns from the clinch, Oliveira’s opponents have to work to avoid takedowns. With that in mind, Oliveira will then mix his tools as he throws knees and elbows while his opponents are concerned about the takedowns. With all of these tools working, opponents work to stay out of the clinch. When fighters look to exit the clinch, Oliveira will land strikes as they back out.
When all of these tools can work together Oliveira can deal out a lot of damage in a short time.
Strength Two: Back Takes
The most important part about Oliveira’s game is his outstanding Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. You could list a hundred different aspects of Oliveira’s ground game as a strength, but I selected his ability to take the back. My reasoning for this is that Oliveira can fundamentally take his opponents back from a variety of positions and he does so quickly. This ability allows him to frequently work to land submissions.
Weakness One: Getting Hit When Opponents Pressure
The majority of the issues in Oliveira’s game revolve around his striking defense. The first issue I noticed was that his opponent is effective when they pressure Oliviera. As Oliveira moves backward, he can be caught with big shots. This is for a handful of reasons, namely he will not move his head as much, he can lose his defensive positioning, and he can lose track of range.
Weakness Two: Leaving Openings Through Over-aggression
The second weakness in Oliveira’s game is that he can get overaggressive which leaves his opponents opportunities to land heavy strikes. A great example of this was when Poirier hit him with a massive counter after Oliveira through a hook when he was not in range, and he threw it without setting it up.
Oliveira’s Keys to Victory
There are several keys to an Oliveira victory. First, he should look to get the fight to the ground. Even if he is unable to land takedowns, he should at least create scrambles. With his ability to find a submission, he has to incorporate that aspect of his game.
On the feet, he should continue to work in the clinch and work to the body. If he can do that, he can tire his opponents which works well with his non-stop pace.
Lastly, Oliveira should continue to be super aggressive. As we discussed, that can have negative effects, but I think the positives outweigh those negatives. When Oliveira is aggressive, he can land strikes more efficiently and he tires his opponent out. Those are both crucial elements of his style.
How to Beat Charles Oliveira
Beating Oliveira is not an easy task, but I think it is possible. I think a game plan against Oliveira should start with lateral movement. If you can move laterally, you can force Oliveira to chase you. This will decrease the threat of his striking and it could potentially frustrate him. It is also less risky that moving forward. As far as the clinch goes, we have seen fighters struggle. One thing that an opponent has not tried is pressuring into the clinch of Oliveira. If an opponent can pressure Oliveria in the clinch and push him up against the cage that could decrease the threat of his clinch work. This is at least a strategy that someone should attempt.
