RIO DE JANEIRO — When a knee injury forced Rafael Fiziev out of a UFC Rio main event bout, the promotion reached out to Charles Oliveira with a few options as a replacement. Mateusz Gamrot was one of the names thrown his way, and ultimately selected for the five-round lightweight clash.
It took a couple of days to get the deal done, though, and Gamrot admits he feared that “do Bronx” would not agree to go form a striker like Fiziev to a grappler like himself.
“For me, this was a little bit surprise because I saw his interview in Portuguese, like he knows my name, he respects me. Of course, I respect him a lot too,” Gamrot told MMA Fighting. “But he has camp prepared for different style, versus striker guy, and he is not ready for my style. For me, this was a little bit funny because he’s the lion, the most submissions in the UFC history. He submits almost everybody. How can be scared like a grappler guy? I am a grappler, I want to take down everybody in my fight, so this is going to be the same with Charles. We step in the cage, but I want to take him down and want to scramble with him in the ground.”
Gamrot is 8-3 under the UFC banner but has no submissions since joining the promotion. A two-time ADCC Europe trials winner, the Polish talent sees Oliveira as the best grappler he’s ever faced so far in MMA, and believes the former UFC champion hasn’t shared the cage with a grappler like him before.
“My previous opponent always tried to stand up from the ground, like ground was fire for my previous opponent, so I never can show my really performance in the ground,” Gamrot said. “But right now I think Charles wants to fight me on the ground, in the guard, he wants to try to submit me, maybe choke me, maybe guillotine, maybe take the back. He’s great from this position. I think this time I show my epic performance from the ground, like versus [Arman] Tsarukyan. This was non-stop action, non-stop scramble because Tsarukyan was a wrestler as well and he don’t scare my wrestling. I expect the same against Charles. This is gonna be epic fight in the ground.”
Competing in enemy territory against a local fan-favorite isn’t new to Gamrot, who found himself on the losing end of a close split decision against Dan Hooker in Australia. With that in mind, he doesn’t plan on going 25 minutes against “do Bronx” in Rio de Janeiro.
“I remember I was in Australia and when Hooker tried hit me and kick me and I blocked everything and the crowd was loud. When I hit him clean, the crowd was quiet,” Gamrot said. “So I think for the judges can be the reason which side is better. But I don’t want fight with Charles five rounds. I want to finish this fight early before time so we don’t need judges for this fight.”
UFC CEO Dana White said at the UFC 320 post-fight press conference this past Saturday that the winner of Tsarukyan vs. Hooker, announced for the main event of UFC Qatar, is likely to be the next contender at lightweight. Gamrot isn’t so sure.
In fact, he suggests an alternative on how to match make the top of the 155-pound weight class.
“Charles is former champ, great name,” Gamrot said. “I think the winner my fight versus Charles and the winner of Arman versus Hooker should meet together and then this is going to be No. 1 contender. … I think Topuria will be going to fight Gaethje or Pimblett right now. … I think Topuria will knock Paddy out, for sure. [Gaethje] is interesting matchup too because like striker versus striker, both tough guys. But I think Ilia is more fresh and more young than all these guys and he can win as well.”
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