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Charles Oliveira has beat out current Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Welterweight champion, Kamaru Usman, Featherweight title holder, Alexander Volkanovski, and Professional Fighters League (PFL) Lightweight champion, Kayla Harrison, for “Best MMA Fighter” at the 2022 ESPY awards.
The announcement was revealed during today’s (July 16, 2022) broadcast of UFC Long Island, which went down inside UBS Arena at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y., airing on ABC and ESPN+, and there was at least one person who wasn’t happy with the decision.
Shocker!
@USMAN84kg got robbed today of ESPY’s fighter of the year award and he do not give a fu*k, he is the greatest fighter of all time, nobody even close.
— Ali Abdelaziz (@AliAbdelaziz00) July 17, 2022
August 20th, León Edwards is a great man, but he is at the wrong time at the wrong place.
Oliveira only fought once in 2022, defeating Justin Gaethje via first round submission at UFC 274 this past May (see it again here). While triumphant, “Do Bronx” was stripped of the title prior to the fight for failing to make championship weight.
That said, Oliveira — who is on a ridiculous 11-fight win streak — will get the chance to win it back when he takes on Islam Makhachev in the main event of UFC 280 for the vacant title, which is set to go down on Oct. 22 in Abu Dhabi.
The ESPY’s will air live from Los Angeles, Calif., on ABC at 8 p.m. ET on July 20, 2022, which will be hosted by Golden State Warrior’s sharpshooter, Stephen Curry.
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