This past weekend at UFC 210, UFC featherweight Charles Oliveira made his successful UFC lightweight debut as he picked up a 1st round submission win over Will Brooks to kick off the pay-per view portion of the main card.
Following his big win over Brooks, Olvieira celebrated as many fighters do, by jumping the cage to celebrate. The New York State Athletic Commission wasn’t too fond of Oliveira’s celebration, and ultimately handed ‘Do Bronx’ a 60-day suspension for the incident. This followed the precedent set by the NYSAC when they suspended UFC middleweight #1 contender Yoel Romero for 60 days for climbing out of the cage to celebrate his 3rd round KO win over Chris Weidman. Ultimately, the suspension fell under the category of ‘exiting the fighting area’.
In a recent interview with MMAJunkie, Oliveira reacted to the news of his suspension, saying:
“I was super sad, actually,” Oliveira said in his native Portuguese. “After a fight like that, of how it unfolded and how I won – and, man, I jumped there. It was a matter of fraction of seconds. I jumped and got right back in, practically.
“I jumped right next to the cage door, just to hug my cornerpeople and got back in, and the guys issued a punishment. I think there was no need for that. But what are you going to do? It happens.”
“It’s something new to learn: not to jump out of the cage, regardless of it being quick, or just a little bit,” Oliveira said. “It’s not going to interfere in anything, hopefully.
“God knows all things, as it’s always been in my life. But I’m ready. When the UFC wants me to fight, I’ll be ready.”
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As Charles Oliveira pointed out, while Romero climbed out of the cage and marched around in front of the crowd, he simply jumped the cage in order to hug his cornermen after the big win.
Do you agree with the suspension?
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 3/13/2017.