FB TW IG YT VK TH
Search
MORE FROM OUR CHANNELS

Wrestlezone
FB TW IG YT VK TH

Vinicius Oliveira Details Cartilage Injury That Hindered Him at UFC Saudi Arabia



Vinicius Oliveira has revealed the injury that hindered him toward the end of his victory over Said Nurmagomedov at UFC Saudi Arabia this past Saturday.

Advertisement
“LokDog” plans to take six weeks to recover and is eyeing a return to the Octagon this summer following his unanimous decision win over Nurmagomedov, which received “Fight of the Night” honors.

“The name is costochondritis. It is an inflammation of the cartilage that connects the rib to the chest,” Oliveira told Sherdog.com. “The pain is so severe that 30% of [people who think they are suffering a heart attack] are due to costochondritis. The pain is so severe that I couldn't [train properly] during the week of the fight. Grappling, no way. As it is cartilage, there is no way to infiltrate it. All I could do was take paracetamol and codeine, which made me very slow and really affected my performance in the first round.

“The treatment for it is six weeks of absolute rest and physiotherapy. You won't need surgery or anything. This injury took me out of the fight against Farid Basharat in October last year. I thought it was gone when I started the camp for Said, but it wasn't. It attacked me twice during the camp, the last time with eight days to go before the fight when the entire team had already been in Riyadh for over a week.”

Thanks to plenty of past experience fighting in Abu Dhabi under the UAE Warriors banner, Oliveira was well aware of the importance of arriving early to adjust to the time zone.

“Among those seven fights in the Middle East, the only time I arrived three days before, I had one of the worst performances of my life. Since then, I’d rather invest my own money,” he said. “This time I arrived 16 days before with three coaches. The win and the bonus paid back all my investment and will give me financial support for my next camp.”

Once his recovery is complete, Oliveira plans to venture to Thailand to supplement his training.

Carlos Prates, who lived there for a long time, will even help me by indicating the best place to train,” he said. “I’m going with my trainer. My idea is to return from there at the end of April with a fight scheduled for June or July.”

Oliveira also explained why he issued a post-fight callout to recent bantamweight title challenger Umar Nurmagomedov following his latest victory.

“The week of my debut against [Bernardo] Sopai, he fought on the same card,” Oliveira said. “Since I saw a lot of people saying no bantamweight wanted to face Umar, right after winning the bonus I made a post tagging Dana [White] and the UFC and asking for this fight. He didn't like it and started sending DMs calling for me to fight in the street, and I told him not to be a p—y and behave as a professional by accepting the fight. With this victory over Said I am 4-0 [against Russians]. My game doesn’t fit with theirs. I hope the UFC gives me the opportunity to fight more Russians.”

If the UFC doesn’t want to give him such a highly-ranked foe next, Oliveira has another option in mind.

Aiemann Zahabi is the No. 13 [in the UFC rankings],” he said. “I think it could be a nice matchup with a great chance to get a third bonus.”
More

Subscribe to our Newsletter

* indicates required
Latest News

POLL

Should the UFC hold fighters accountable for making controversial statements?

FIGHT FINDER


FIGHTER OF THE WEEK

Jake Paul

TOP TRENDING FIGHTERS


+ FIND MORE