‘$2 million headbutt’ kept Oliveira off UFC 295 at Madison Square Garden

Has anyone suffered a more expensive headbutt in the history of MMA than Charles Oliveira?

Oliveira was set to headline UFC 294 in a much-hyped lightweight title rematch against Islam Makhachev. Unfortunately for everyone excited to see that, “Do Bronx” suffered a bad cut from a headbutt in training a week out from the event. It was so bad there was no other option but to pull out.

Now new behind-the-scenes footage from the new Roku series Fight Inc. shows UFC CEO Dana White and his matchmaking team discuss the incident and how much it cost the Brazilian fighter.

“He’s going the night before, sparring with no head gear,” an angry White declared. “That cost him big money.”

“That’s a two million dollar headbutt,” matchmaker Sean Shelby said.

But it gets worse! Not only did Oliveira lose out on a $2 million purse for UFC 294 in October, the headbutt was so bad that he was still unable to fight a month later at UFC 295 when Jon Jones pulled out of his heavyweight title main event against Stipe Miocic due to an injury.

Fight Inc. showed White and Chief Business Officer Hunter Campbell discussing replacement options for the main event at Madison Square Garden. Campbell said he was confident he could re-book Makhachev vs. Oliveira.

“Islam took no damage [at UFC 294], I don’t think he took a single strike,” Campbell said. “And Oliveira’s still in shape. And his cut will be ready by then too. I think I can pull that off, to be honest with you.”

Alas, the MMA Gods can be cruel, and Oliveira’s cut was not ready.

“The cut’s still not healed and he hasn’t been training,” Campbell said after a call to Oliveira’s manager. “And he’s still — according to the doctors — not cleared for contact for ten more days. The cut was so deep he has two layers of stitches. Exterior, and he has them on the interior. There’s no way. He’s like ‘I can’t even really train.’ He’s like ‘I can’t take a shot.’ It’s so tender you can feel how thin the skin is.”

So Oliveira didn’t just lose one shot at the lightweight title due to this headbutt, he lost two. And if he was positioned to make $2 million against Makhachev at UFC 294, how much would he have made to step in last-minute at UFC 295? That wasn’t a $2 million headbutt. It was a $4 million headbutt, if not $5 million.

And now that “Do Bronx” has lost to Arman Tsarukyan at UFC 300, his route back to the title is no longer as certain as it once was. What a terrible domino effect one moment in training can have!