THE APEX TIMES
Oliveira, currently the UFC BMF champion, has been out of action since UFC 326. His coach says the promotion could still be looking at a high-level matchup, with Arman Tsarukyan repeatedly mentioned as a potential path.
Charles Oliveira’s next UFC fight is still a moving target, but his camp is already shaping the discussion around who could step in next. In comments relayed through Yahoo Sports, Diego Lima, Oliveira’s coach and a key voice in planning the champion’s training blocks, suggested a potential next opponent while addressing where Oliveira’s career timeline could go after his most recent appearance.
Oliveira captured the UFC BMF title at UFC 326 in March, defeating Max Holloway to take the belt. That victory matters beyond the moment because the BMF championship has become one of the promotion’s clearest “name-brand” accelerants, often serving as a bridge from one marquee fight cycle into another top-tier contender storyline.
The specific name tied to the near-term picture is Arman Tsarukyan, who had been positioned as a logical contender opponent in the lead-up to UFC 331. The report indicates Oliveira was expected to fight Tsarukyan in a No. 1 contender bout at UFC 331, which would have put the winner directly in line for the next crucial title-picture domino. With Oliveira not competing since March, the plan has obviously required adjustment.
Within that context, Lima’s latest comments are best read as a camp-level assessment rather than an official booking. A coach can weigh styles, timing, and risk-reward, and when a fighter has been removed from the cage for months, matchups can shift quickly due to availability and ongoing contender paths inside the UFC’s matchmaking structure. That means any opponent “reveal” functions more like a roadmap for what the promotion might pursue than a signed agreement.
A potential Oliveira-Tsarukyan matchup would fit the UFC’s preference for fights that carry both sporting stakes and wider audience pull. Tsarukyan is repeatedly treated as a high-end contender type in the lightweight-to-welterweight-adjacent conversation, and a meeting with the BMF champion would combine championship credibility with a clash that fans generally expect to produce urgency. If the UFC keeps using the BMF belt as a platform for title-picture momentum, a No. 1 contender-adjacent bout remains a natural storyline.
For now, the key detail is that Oliveira is still the UFC BMF champion and has not competed since his UFC 326 win over Holloway. The next step for his camp is to convert that status into a definitive next booking, and Lima’s remarks point toward the possibility that the UFC could still treat Tsarukyan as a central name in the conversation. The question for UFC 331’s aftermath is whether the promotion can align timing with a contender route that preserves the “top of the division” meaning of these matchups.
As the calendar progresses, pay attention to two things: whether the UFC locks a clear opponent for Oliveira, and whether Tsarukyan’s path to a No. 1 contender position remains intact or is rerouted. In UFC matchmaking, timing is often as consequential as style, and Oliveira’s extended gap since March makes the next confirmation the most important update for both the BMF championship and the lightweight title picture.