Can Alex Oliveira become Anything more than a gatekeeper?

[ArtemV]

He has had some nice wins over the years in the UFC, such as: Condit (although Condit is well past his prime), Means, LaFlare and some other lower ranked fighters; he has never beaten a ranked fighter but was on a pretty good winning streak, before losing to Medeiros, then beat submitted Condit and was given some debutante to beat up in less than a minute.

Will he ever become a gatekeeper? The fighters who he lost to (Medeiros and Cerrone) were not anywhere near the top. Cerrone hasn't been a contender in years and Medeiros hasn't even been able to enter the top 10 before.

Where does this put Oliveira? against debutante fighters? or against declining fighters who he may lose to.

Thoughts?

 

[in the liver]

he just overtook royce's submission win record, thats a fine achievement in itself

edit - leaving this up for shaming

 

[HBomber]

he just overtook royce's submission win record, thats a fine achievement in itself

That was Charles, at lightweight. Alex is the Brazilian Cowboy of 170.

 

[in the liver]

That was Charles, at lightweight. Alex is the Brazilian Cowboy of 170.

hahahaha dude im having a rough day

 

[MidgardSerpent]

The guy he was fighting wasn't debuting. And you can have a long an succesful carreer without ever becoming champion in your weight class.

 

[FleximusPrime]

You know some fighters just want to get paid right, not every fighter has any real ambition to become champion and are quite happy to drift under the radar fighting other mid tier journeymen just to collect a cheque at the end of it right.

 

[dbader08]

I would say no. His combos aren't the smoothest, even though they can be effective. I'd like to see him be a little more patient at times and put better combos together instead of just kinda wading forward with punches like he sometimes does. He doesn't necessarily have fight ending power when it comes to facing the top guys. How many times did he hit Yancy clean and couldn't finish him? If he'd been a bit more patient and just found that good counter, maybe he would have finished him easily. He has a willingness to brawl too much. Also, it would take something pretty impressive for a guy like him to get a title shot in the present UFC. But he's definitely gotten better, he's a good fighter for sure. We could see him get a chance at another big fight soon, that could tell us a lot. And it is fun watching him fight, especially when he's kinda wild lol I'd rather watch him than a Wonderboy fight!

 

[TjDillashawCombo]

Him and Trinaldo are cool high level gatekeepers

Серроне был все еще хорош когда Оливейра проиграл ему. Его спад начался в 2017 году, а до этого он финишировал 4-х оппонентов включая Оливейру

 

[smiles mma]

I'd say he's a journeyman more than a gatekeeper.

 

[HelloJapan]

Sherdog and its cute little terms...

 

[expected_loss]

I'm his biggest fan but no. He often shows in his fights that his fight IQ is not the best.

 

[DRAKEADEMIKS]

Who cares, he always gives exciting fight. His fight vs Yancy was fight of the decade contender

 

[The_Renaissance]

Oliveira's a beast. I will always love the bloke for exposing Will 'Non UFC So I must be a Monster' Brooks. There's levels to this shit, William. Fuck off to PFL and struggle your guts out there. 'Cowboy' is top 10 material for me. Only the elite will take him out, he's a scary motherfucker.