MMA being what it is, a lot of expectations were put on Alex Oliveira vs. Peter Sobotta at UFC Fight Island 3. “A lot of people thought it was going to be Fight of the Night. I knew it was going to be a tough fight,” Oliveira, the eventual winner, told Cageside Press post-fight.
Speaking to media outlets in a virtual post-fight press scrum, Brazil’s Cowboy countered those expectations by saying “what really matters is to go in there and get the win.”
“It was all focus, faith, and showing that the work we did worked out,” Oliveira (22-8-1, 2NC) said of the outcome.
While the unanimous decision win wasn’t the explosive finish some may have wanted, it puts Oliveira on a two fight win streak. Which has him looking ahead to ranked opponents next. In a deep welterweight division.
“I just want to call out anyone in the top 15,” he said. “I think the UFC knows I have a lot of potential. I want to get back in the rankings.”
The Fight Island experience, meanwhile, wasn’t as foreign as you might think.
“I told my coach, there’s not going to be any fans or any crowd, so let’s go in there like it’s a training session. Like hard sparring. You just can’t make any mistakes, but it feels like training,” he explained. Beyond that, there were few obstacles.
“The weight cut was good, I like the warm weather,” Oliveira said, before adding “it’s really hot here.” With the ability to train and talk to his children back home inside the Fight Island safety zone, however, Oliveira added that he felt “really good here.”
Watch the full UFC Fight Island 3 virtual post-fight interview with Alex Oliveira above.
