Diego Lopes desires UFC gold — or a minimum of an opportunity to earn that spot towards a legend of the game.
Lopes scored the largest win of his profession earlier this month UFC 306, defeating two-time title challenger Brian Ortega by way of resolution at Sphere in Las Vegas to climb six positions and attain No. 5 within the MMA Preventing World Rankings. Nevertheless, that doesn’t imply he’s now desirous about going through the No. 4-ranked Movsar Evloev, the fighter who handed Lopes his most up-to-date loss.
Lopes was aggressive in a short-notice resolution loss to Evloev in Might 2023, impressing in his UFC debut. He has since received 5 straight with a trio of finishes and two post-fight bonuses. Evloev has solely fought as soon as since that evening, defeating Arnold Allen by way of resolution, and supplied a rematch to Lopes at UFC 307 on Oct. 5 after Aljamain Sterling withdrew from their bout because of damage.
“The one risk this combat occurs is that if the UFC actually says, ‘OK, you combat him and win, and also you’re subsequent for the belt,’” Lopes mentioned in an interview with MMA Preventing. “That’s the one manner this combat occurs in the meanwhile, and I desire a full camp. It’s very simple for him to name me out figuring out I simply fought two weeks in the past. I’ve been calling him out a number of occasions to combat with a full camp, and he by no means needed it. The opportunity of me accepting this combat now or combat him on quick discover is zero.”
The UFC featherweight championship is up for grabs on Oct. 26, when Max Holloway challenges Ilia Topuria in Abu Dhabi, and Lopes reaffirmed that being backup fighter for the UFC 308 foremost occasion is his No. 1 plan in the meanwhile.
“If that doesn’t occur, we’d like the potential of preventing [Alexander] Volkanovski in December,” Lopes mentioned. “He doesn’t like to attend, and neither do I, in order that might be a superb combat. Loads can occur, however I believe the 2 most viable choices for us proper now are being the backup fighter in Abu Dhabi, or preventing Volkanovski in December. The UFC is conscious that I’m out there for [UFC 308], so it relies on what they need to do.”
Volkanovski reigned as UFC featherweight king from 2019 to 2024, defeating the likes of Holloway, Ortega, Jose Aldo and “The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung, however has now misplaced three of his previous 4. Two of these losses got here towards 155-pound champion Islam Makhachev, and he was knocked out by Topuria in his most up-to-date combat.
Lopes mentioned he’s “out there and keen” to face Volkanovski within the headliner to the Dec. 14 Combat Evening card in Tampa, Fla., or to battle in a five-round co-headliner at UFC 310 per week prior in Las Vegas.
“The Volk combat can be very fascinating as a result of he’s proven he can adapt effectively to all people’s fashion, particularly when his opponent is taller, till he fought Topuria,” Lopes mentioned. “However I believe I can even adapt effectively to guys which can be shorter than me, so it will be a really fascinating combat.”
