Oliveira made his professional debut in July 1990 with a second round knockout of Joe Goss. He won his first 13 fights before suffering a majority-decision defeat to Terry Southerland in March 1992. In December 1993 he challenged
Zack Padilla for the
WBO world super-lightweight title, losing on points in a fight that broke records for the number of punches thrown and landed, a fate repeated four months later when he challenged for
Jake Rodriguez's
IBF title. A string of wins led to a challenge for
Charles Murray's
NABF title in April 1997. Oliveira moved up to welterweight again and challenged for Lorenzo Smith's
IBU world title in January 2003. Oliveira took the belt after Smith retired in the sixth round. He lost the title in May that year to Elio Ortiz, but regained it October 2004 with a unanimous points win over Hicklet Lau. Hatton winning by a tenth-round knockout, the first time in Oliveira's career that he had been stopped. Oliveira fought only once more – an eighth-round stoppage loss to
Emanuel Augustus; He began experiencing serious pains at the base of his skull midway through the fight, as well as loss of feeling in his arms and shaking, and the referee stopped the bout after noticing that Augustus was avoiding throwing punches to Oliveira's head. Oliveira had planned to make a comeback against Joey Spina on October 2, 2010, but despite being passed fit to fight by one neurologist, another appointed by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation Gaming Commission refused to allow him to fight, and Oliveira never fought again. After retiring as a fighter, Oliveira trained boxers at his gym. Oliveira's son, Ray Jr. is also a professional boxer. ==References==