Diego Lopes is determined to re-book his fight with Brian Ortega, dismissing other potential matchups, as he believes a win over Ortega would significantly boost his chances for a title shot.
Diego Lopes wants to re-book his fight with Brian Ortega.
The rising featherweight sensation agreed to a short-notice bout with the two-time title challenger for UFC 303 in late June. This happened after the card lost Conor McGregor vs. Michael Chandler. However, the matchup moved up a weight class and then changed altogether when Dan Ige stepped in on hours’ notice as his new opponent.
Lopes won a decision that night. He’s adamant that Ortega should be his next UFC foe. For that reason, Lopes has decided to dismiss callouts from former bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling and his former opponent Movsar Evloev.
“It doesn’t make sense now,” Lopes told Canal Encarada when asked about possibly facing Sterling next. “We were going to fight the No. 3 in the world, then we fought the No. 13 and went up two positions.” The UFC has basically guaranteed him a fight with a top-five opponent now, so Aljamain Sterling makes no sense, and neither does a rematch with Movsar.
Lopes had a close fight with Evloev on short notice in his UFC debut. Since then, he’s gone on a tear with four UFC wins and three post-fight bonuses. Evloev has only fought once since his win over Lopes, capturing a decision over Arnold Allen. Meanwhile, Sterling is 1-0 in his return to 145 pounds with a three-round win opposite Calvin Kattar earlier this year.
“They know I’m in a good spot right now,” Lopes said. “They know I was going to fight the No. 3 in the world and I’m kicking down the door for a title fight.” So they want the buzz for themselves? It makes no sense for them to call me out since they’re ranked higher than me! But they know I’m generating lots of buzz with fans and the UFC.
Lopes mentioned he was informed by UFC that he will be part of the UFC 306 pay-per-view at the Sphere on Sept. 14 but still needs to nail down his dance partner. However, facing Ortega is more important to him than being on the Sphere card.
Ortega has mentioned his desire to move to lightweight full-time going forward, and Lopes would be down to face Ortega at 155 pounds “if his featherweight ranking position is on the line.”
“Since it appears that [Max] Holloway and [Ilia] Topuria will fight,” Lopes said, “I would like to fight Ortega because he has fought for the title twice and he has tons of experience against the best of the division.” A good fight—and win—over him would definitely put me next to a title shot!