They are making the same mistake with Oliveira that they did with Poirier

[Kaiserjuan]

Both are great fighters, Charles is gunna hafta weather an early storm and get it to the ground for a finish. Poirier needs to keep it standing and pressure Oliveira when he can, especially against the cage.

Chuck has good striking it’s just Dustins is better.

Dunno...Charles gas looke pretty Crisp in his recent bouts . He was tagging Fergie all day and had a beautiful hook vs Chandler. He's chinny and this might play against him a little , but his striking is solid to me

 

[Shaddows]

I think they are making the same mistake with Oliveira that they made with Poirier, which was why Dustin was such a huge underdog against Max, Conor-2 and the fight was considered pretty close in a trilogy fight as well.

You can see what they were saying about Poirier in this thread.

https://forums.sherdog.com/threads/is-dustin-poirier-the-best-striker-in-the-lw-history.4190204/

I think people sometimes underestimate what hard work with high level training available to fighters right now can do to improve fighters, especially younger fighters, relatively speaking anyways.

People kept thinking Poirier is a wild brawler with suspect defense because he got dropped in a pretty spectacular manner and sort of disregarded the clear improvement Poirier made over time. He's way more technical than lot of people give him credit for and way better defensively sound.

However, I do it is true that Poirier's game hasn't really changed per se. He just refined his weapons very, very well.

I think I see something similar happening with Oliveira. He did also look like he found a way out earlier in his career here and there, and perhaps heart is something that can't be taught, and I haven't really payed a lot of attention to Oliveira to say exactly, but I do know he made a lot of improvements.

I think if Oliveira can avoid getting clipped by Poirier and survive the onslaught early, I think he has a pretty good chance of finishing Poirier. I just think people are making the same mistake of underestimating Oliveira like they did with Poirier, though this fight probably could go either way.

Most people are too partial to see things.
And many times, they are validated by the results.

Just look at Conor & Khabib.
Yes, Khabib made it look easy.
But same as Cain & Junior one, Conor could have clipped Khabib coming in (like he did Aldo) and won via KO. It could have happened, but because it did not, people claim Conor had no chance.

This is the game of fighting, and many still does not understand that it is like a game of chess, but with a higher level of difficulty (i.e. add a % chance the blow will hit/miss for every attempt).

But I would not worry.
In both camps they have people who take the other fighter seriously, and kow how much both fighters improved.
Let the fans keep "knowing" it all. The real game is much deeper, and you get to enjoy watching both sides, not only one.

 

[WhiteMousse]

I did not know that there was a consensus on Poirier. I think that would be very foolish. I see it as a close fight, and I actually favor Oliveria as the rounds start to go by