One of the UFC’s most exciting additions in recent years has dealt with some losses along the way.
Diego Lopes’ career has been a remarkable story which now sees him competing at the very top of the featherweight division.
Despite his current form inside the Octagon, even Lopes’ UFC run hasn’t been straight forward after he managed to impress the bosses in a narrow loss on short notice.
The Brazilian fan favorite now returns in the main event of UFC 314 on April 12 where he will compete for the vacant 145-pound title.
His opponent, the former champion Alexander Volkanovski, is confident that he can defeat Lopes to reclaim the crown which wouldn’t be the first time that the rising contender has suffered a setback.
Diego Lopes seemingly suffered an injury following some big ground and pound strikes
Having previously come up short on Dana White’s Contender Series, Diego Lopes arrived in the UFC with an overall record of 21-5.
Now with six losses to his name, the 30-year-old has never been submitted but he does have two TKO losses that came long before he was in the UFC.
His most recent stoppage defeat came back in 2018 at ACB 78 where the 12-2 Lopes faced off with 3-1 Russian Amir Elzhurkaev.
Lopes had some success in the opening round with his striking and submission attempts from the bottom but his aggressive style did leave him open for several takedowns.
He has certainly improved since then but whilst his tendency to go all out with his offense has made him a fan favorite, it does come with some downsides.
In the second, Elzhurkaev got Lopes down early where he landed some effective ground and pound strikes and without as much output from his opponent, he really started to dominate the bout.
The Brazilian was in trouble on the bottom and his face started to grimace after his opponent landed an elbow to his mid section in between the shots to the head.
From here, Elzhurkaev capitalized by controlling one of his opponent’s arms before landing multiple unprotected hammer fists that forced the referee to step in.
Alexander Volkanovski will surely test Diego Lopes in this area
Diego Lopes is an incredibly dangerous and creative submission artist but that’s not something that Alexander Volkanovski hasn’t dealt with in the past.
When fighting against dangerous grapplers, ‘The Great’ has been able to keep himself safe whilst raining down some vicious strikes from the top and with his relentless cardio, he’s a nightmare in this position.
It seems likely that Volkanovski will look to mix things up, especially when you look at how aggressive Lopes can be which cost him a few takedowns in this TKO loss.
A big question will be whether the former champion is able to get his opponent down, keep him there and stay out of danger at the same time.
