Dana White Refutes Rumors of Makhachev-Oliveira 2 Headlining UFC 297 in January

It appears Islam Makhachev and Charles Oliveira won’t have their rematch at the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s first pay-per-view card of next year.

While yet to be announced, UFC 297 is being targeted for Jan. 20 in Toronto. Per a recent report from Ariel Helwani, Oliveira (34-9) would attempt to reclaim the lightweight strap against Makhachev (25-1) in the main event of the night. However, Helwani’s report has been dismissed by UFC CEO Dana White who told ESPN’s Brett Okamoto, “Anything is possible, it’s whenever both are ready.” Helwani’s report was also dismissed as “fake news” by Makhachev’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz, who told Okamoto that the champ will be ready to fight on March 9.

Makhachev dropped Oliveira before submitting him to win the vacant strap at UFC 280 last October. The Dagestani has since defended his title twice against featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski, first via a closely contested decision in February followed by a highlight-reel head kick knockout in October, while Oliveira bounced back from the defeat with a dominant win over Beneil Dariush at UFC 289 in June.

While Makhachev was originally scheduled for a rematch against Oliveira at UFC 294 last month, “do Bronx” was forced out after being cut in sparring 10 days before the event. While he hasn’t returned to training yet, Oliveira claims he will soon be ready to do so.

Oliveira was among those who were caught unawares by the rumor of a UFC 297 rematch. The 34-year-old recently said during a post-fight show at UFC Fight Night 231 in Sao Paulo, “It was quite a deep cut. We don’t have any scheduled fights at the moment, so we can take our time to get a good recovery. So I might go back into within a week or so. No, [not back in the gym], not yet.

“We just heard this in the locker room,” he added. “People were asking us in messages. This is the first time we’ve heard about it. But that’s the timeline, January maybe, so who knows.”