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The former UFC Lightweight king out of Guarujá, Brazil, Charles Oliveira, was to make his return at UFC Rio (AKA UFC Fight Night: Oliveira vs Fiziev), Live from Farmasi Arena. However, his lightweight opponent on the fight night lineup on Oct. 11th, LIVE on ESPN+, Rafael Fiziev, pulled out due to injuries. While bound to the Rio headliner, Oliveira has vented frustrations about not finding opponents to make the matchup, and some of it (seemingly) could be directed at Benoit Saint-Denis.
While ‘Do Bronx’ was aware of his desire to present a performance for his supporters in Brazil, this is now uncertain following Fiziev’s Rio roster pullout. Charles Oliveira didn’t name names, but on Sunday, he called out the convoluted UFC lightweight class for lying about wanting to fight him, but not turning up.
Everybody knows my UFC Rio fight is off…But don’t fall for the talk of these guys out there saying, ‘I’m here, I’ll go’. The UFC is calling, and they are like: ‘Oh, there’s not enough time…Oh, I can’t.’ They’re posting all this on the internet to get hype; it’s not a good look. ‘Oh, I can’t. I got bellyache. I broke a finger. I hurt my hand.’ It’s not a good look…
Charles Oliveira is Portugese, in his IG Stories (@charlesdobronxs)
Oliveira’s knockout loss at the UFC 317: Topuria vs. Oliveira PPV main event set a precedent to return with a bang. This isn’t the first time he has had to poke at the convoluted lineup, saying people don’t turn up for fights as promised. Two ballot fights ago, Fiziev himself was a short-notice replacement set to face Justin Gaethje in a rematch. Before that, there was much turmoil over who’d face Gaethje in the lineup, including Dan Hooker, Michael Chandler, Renato Moicano, and even Dustin Poirier.
Oliveira lost out a decision to Arman Tsarukyan at UFC 300 PPV, last April, in a title eliminator to face then-champ Islam Makhachev. While boasting a top shot promise, he dominated Chandler to win his shot at the vacant gold this summer, but failed. Now, #3 ranked in the athletes’ listings, Do Bronx is angsty to possibly get back to what was his; Benoit Saint-Denis, a top-15 lightweight and pure berserker, seemed a good option for it.
🚨 BREAKING: Rafael Fiziev is OUT of his fight against Charles Oliveira at #UFCRio on October 11 due an injury
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) September 20, 2025
(per @AgFight) pic.twitter.com/2vXUBTnYuX
Saint-Denis got called out for a France vs. Brazil thematic co-main banger at UFC Fight Night 258 in Paris by Mauricio Ruffy. French fighters went 5-0 in the lineup in a massive blow on September 6th – and Saint-Denis defeated the star by R2 submission (rear-naked choke) – at the 2:56 mark. To top it off (Oliveira’s angst, that is), the UFC Paris star said he was interested in the fallout of the UFC Fight Night 261 (Oliveira vs Fiziev affair, AKA UFC on ESPN+ 119).
Both Fiziev (No.10 ranked) and Oliveira make for top 10 matchups to enter the contention fray for the French star. However, Saint-Denis’ manager, Guillaume Peltier, regressed that the lightweight fighter would return for the Rio card.
Given the number of requests about this, I prefer to state right now, there will be no BSD vs Oliveira in October…We respect Oliveira far too much to take it that way. This kind of fight needs preparation…
Guillaume Peltier via his IG Story
Could we see @BenoitSt_Denis step in to face @CharlesDoBronxs at UFC Rio? 🤔
— Uncrowned (@uncrownedcombat) September 20, 2025
2 weeks ago BSD said this ⬇️
“I will accept any opportunity the UFC gives me to fight somebody in the top 10… I'm ready to step up. I'm even looking at Oliveira x Fiziev, if somebody gets injured.” pic.twitter.com/xCD7Hkm0Jd
While a number of contenders have emerged to pitch in for UFC Rio, ‘God of War’ is a southpaw adjunct scrambler and would have made for an exciting fight against Oliveira. He also marks a case of reversal, having previously stated interest in it, before Fiziev withdrew.
A win with Oliveira would give him another crack at lightweight top-five, again, over a year since Saint-Denis’ loss to Dustin Poirier. But that seems to be off for now, and lightweight legend Oliveira is angsty for newer, willing options. Subsequently, as it turns out, there’s another name he has said the same about.
Charles Oliveira rips ‘nonsense’ Dan Hooker regarding refusal to UFC Rio headliner
Seemingly, it’s not just Benoit Saint-Denis that Oliveira has it out on. #6 Lightweight Dan Hooker pulled out of UFC 313 and is still sidelined due to his hand injury, and this time, he couldn’t make it to UFC Rio. This, too, was on top of his post-surgery unfused bones since before he fought Jalin Turner at UFC 290.
During a recent media interview with Ag.Fight, the first to report on the Rio roster switch-up and withdrawal, Charles Oliveira voraciously took aim at Hooker and other lightweights for not walking the walk at such a prestige fight night offering.
I’m not who goes around playing games. But I was offered names, and they didn’t even want it. So today, when you release this, these guys will tweet ‘Coward! I wanted it, he didn’t want it!’; it’s a lie…they poke around..talk sh*t — This [Hooker] is also just talking, for a long time. This soap opera, it’s been going on for years. He talked, and talked and talked, and it never happened. So really it’s all talk — That’s the reality. He talked a lot of nonsense, a guy who speaks a lot of nonsense on the internet.
Charles Oliveira said
The duo has blasted each other quite a few times over the years. As of writing this, Hooker made a recent appearance on Sky Sport NZ (@skysportnz) and ripped ‘semi-conscious’ Charlie Olives, poking at his recent KO loss. Hooker said he still isn’t medically cleared, and hence was never offered such a fight for Rio. Right now, who Oliveira fights next is quite up in the air.
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