Two factors drove Ultimate Fighting Championship hopeful Vinicius Oliveira into a life of mixed martial arts, and both of them involve survival.

“I used to get into a lot of fights as a child,” he told Sherdog.com. “Sometimes, I’d get beat up. Sometimes, I’d win. I had a murderous instinct that I needed to externalize. I was fighting very frequently, and I realized this wasn’t the right path for me. I had to focus on defending myself. As time went by, I realized that some fighters are very highly paid, and some of them have been able to change their lives via professional fighting. As I was very poor, I entered fighting for two reasons: one, I needed to feed the monster that lives in me, and two, it was a matter of finances.”

So far, so good for Oliveira. The 28-year-old Brazilian will carry a 20-3 record into his UFC 303 prelim opposite Ricky Simon this Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, where they are set to fight in the shadows of the Alex Pereira-Jiri Prochazka main event. Oliveira punched his ticket to the UFC with a first-round knockout of Victor Madrigal on Week 8 of Dana White’s Contender Series in September, then dazzled in his March 2 promotional debut against Bernardo Sopai at UFC Fight Night 238. There, he cut down Sopai with a flying knee in the waning moments of their encounter and banked $100,000 in bonuses for “Fight of the Night” and “Performance of the Night.”

“The money changed my life a lot,” Oliveira said. “I have no more financial struggles. I made investments. I’m earning money from them. I can spend the money in my pocket without worrying too much. All my debts are paid off. I have a car and a motorcycle. I’m about to buy a house. My money will be there in case of emergency. If I need it, I’ll have it. I feel that if I stopped now, I would be able to maintain my current living standard indefinitely.”

Simon represents a significant step up in competition. The Team Oyama rep has hovered around the Top 15 at 135 pounds since he joined the UFC roster in 2018, having won eight of his 12 bouts inside the Octagon. Victories over Merab Dvalishvili, Rani Yahya, Ray Borg, Brian Kelleher and Raphael Assuncao anchor the Simon resume. However, the 31-year-old Pendleton, Oregon, native enters the cage on the heels of back-to-back losses to Yadong Song and Mario Bautista.

“My opponent is a regular guy,” Oliveira said. “He has two arms and two legs like everyone else. Nothing he does surprises me. I have zero fear. I’m not underestimating him. He’s good at what he does. He’s good at taking people down. He has a solid grappling game. He likes to strike. He’s tough and usually imposes his game early on, but he gets very tired from the middle of the second round [on]. He’ll be surprised when he faces me. I’m very ready for him.

“In reality, I’m ready for anyone,” he added. “He’s just a guy. He bleeds just like I do. I’ll drag him through hell. I’ll knock him out in the second round, and I’ll frustrate him. He’ll expect one thing, and I’ll do another. I don’t even know what I’ll do. Imagine how my opponent will deal with that.”

Oliveira, meanwhile, has rattled off nine wins in 10 appearances, a knockout loss to Ali Taleb under the UAE Warriors banner in 2022 the lone misstep. He remains affiliated with the Sombra Team in Porto Alegre, Brazil, where Rafael Ghilosso overseas his training.

“I’ve been working on my muay thai, MMA, physical conditioning and boxing,” Oliveira said. “It’s insane. Some days, I feel like I can’t do it, but that’s how I like it. I don’t like to be in my comfort zone and neither do my coaches. They’re making it as difficult as they can for me so I’ll be ready for any situation.”

Oliveira, who has secured 16 of his 20 career victories by knockout, envisions becoming a legitimate title contender in the bantamweight division sooner rather than later. He turns 29 in November.

“My plan in the UFC is to fight for the belt,” Oliveira said. “I believe I can do this in no more than two years. My performances will never be less than what people have seen. Outside the UFC, I wish to buy my home. I could have done it by now, but I’m holding off. I want to buy another car, another motorcycle. I want to even buy people’s souls. I want to buy everything I’ve always wanted, even if I never use it. I want to help people. I want to help my family. I want to give a better quality of life to my mother and father. I want to buy them a home, too, and retire them. Considering the work I’ve been doing, I feel I can do this in the near future.

“I also want my wife to be more comfortable, so she doesn’t have to work anymore, and I want to give my daughter an excellent quality of life,” he added. “I know she’ll suffer a little like I did. Life isn’t easy, but everything she needs, she’ll have. I’ll conquer the world. I want to have everything that pops in my head, and my imagination has no limit.”