Alex Oliveira Plans to Teach Colby Covington a Lesson After UFC 218 Fight

Alex Oliveira spoke with MMAjunkie ahead of his fight with Yancy Medeiros at UFC 218 this weekend. Highlights are below:

On his disdain for Covington’s disrespect of Brazil: “I just want to hit him in the face, that’s it. Not just me, but many Brazilians want to. Even Americans don’t like what he did. To go into someone’s country and do what he did? It’s one thing to talk about your opponent, but to talk about the country? That’s just disrespectful to me – and to many other fighters.”

On wanting to teach Covington a lesson: “I don’t simply want to – I will knock him out.”

On learning to pace himself in fights: “I learned that in my fight with Donald Cerrone: You can’t go in there desperate to win the fight, desperate to finish or to brawl. We have 15 minutes in there, you’ve got to stay calm. It’s what I did with LaFlare. He didn’t get anything done on top. I knew he’d be tired in the first round. He’d be back for the second, and I’d be in one piece. That’s it. Whenever he went in, which he did, he’d get a hard message.”

On his next fight after Medeiros: “I want to stay active and keep fighting, because I never stop training. If they give me a fight, right after, in Belem (UFC Fight Night 125, on Feb. 3), I’ll be incredibly happy. It’s been many years since I’ve been able to spend Christmas at home. This year, I will be able to. To be able to start off the year with a fight? Right on.”