Diego
Lopes recently laid down his immediate career plans.
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Lopes is coming off a unanimous decision win over Brian
Ortega at UFC
306 that saw the Brazilian enter the featherweight title
picture. It was Lopes’ fifth consecutive win — including three
finishes — after coming up on the short side of a unanimous
decision against Movsar
Evloev in his
UFC debut.
Meanwhile, Evloev has offered Lopes a rematch after originally
scheduled opponent Aljamain
Sterling pulled out of their UFC 307
matchup set for Oct. 5. However, having fought Evloev on short
notice once, Lopes is unwilling to do it again unless the UFC
guarantees Lopes a title shot with a potential win over the
undefeated Russian.
“The only possibility this fight happens is if the UFC really says,
‘OK, you fight him and win, and you’re next for the belt,’” Lopes
recently told MMAFighting.com. “That’s the only way this
fight happens at the moment, and I want a full camp. It’s very easy
for him to call me out knowing I just fought two weeks ago. I’ve
been calling him out several times to fight with a full camp, and
he never wanted it. The possibility of me accepting this fight now
or fight him on short notice is zero.”
Meanwhile, former champ Max
Holloway challenges Ilia
Topuria for the title in the main event at UFC 308
on Oct. 26 at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi. Lopes wants to be in
on the action in the role of a backup fighter and has already made
it known to the UFC. But if that doesn’t pan out, Lopes wants to
fight former champ Alexander
Volkanovski in December.
“If that doesn’t happen, we’d like the possibility of fighting
Volkanovski in December,” Lopes said. “He doesn’t like to wait, and
neither do I, so that could be a good fight. A lot can happen, but
I think the two most viable options for us right now are being the
backup fighter in Abu Dhabi, or fighting Volkanovski in December.
The UFC is aware that I’m available for [UFC 308], so it depends on
what they want to do.”
Volkanovski is currently 1-3 in his last four, two of which were
failed double champ bids at lightweight against Islam Makahchev.
“The Great” most recently lost his featherweight strap to Topuria
via knockout at UFC 298 this past February. Speaking of a potential
clash against Volkanovski, Lopes says it’s their abilities to adapt
that makes it an exciting matchup.
“The Volk fight would be very interesting because he’s shown he can
adapt well to everybody’s style, especially when his opponent is
taller, until he fought Topuria,” Lopes said. “But I think I can
also adapt well to guys that are shorter than me, so it would be a
very interesting fight.”