Diego Lopes will fight Charles Oliveira for the BMF title in the UFC 335 main event on Dec. 12 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, and the route he took to get there involved more phone calls than a fight camp usually does. Speaking on MMA Junkie Radio, Lopes laid out how the matchup changed hands several times between July and now. His answer to every option was yes.
“These guys know I’m open for every fight,” Lopes said.
The Oliveira idea was on the table from the start. Lopes said that when he told the UFC he wanted to move to 155 pounds, the promotion floated a future BMF fight with Oliveira, and at a meeting with Hunter at the end of July, that was the first thing discussed. The problem was that Oliveira was already slated to face Arman Tsarukyan in Los Angeles.
So the UFC pivoted. The first alternative was Dan Hooker in a Paris main event, until the promotion called back the next day to say Salahdine Parnasse had signed to fight Hooker instead. The fallback after that was Benoit Saint Denis in New York, in case Oliveira passed. Lopes told the UFC, “OK, I love this fight, too. I’m down.” When Oliveira vs. Tsarukyan fell apart, Lopes called the UFC himself to revive the Oliveira booking, and this time it stuck.
The numbers and the stakes
Lopes comes in at 28-8 overall and 7-3 in the UFC. Oliveira, the BMF champion, is 37-11 with a 25-11 UFC record. Lopes’ two losses to featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski are the reason he’s changing divisions, and he didn’t dodge the subject.
“I missed two times to be the best guy in the world. Maybe I’m not the best guy in the world, but now I have a chance to prove I’m the best motherf*cker in the world,” he said.
He arrives at lightweight off finishes of top contender Jean Silva and the streaking Steve Garcia, the Garcia win coming at UFC Freedom 250. Lopes said a win over Oliveira should open up options at 155, either a run toward the belt or a few fun fights.
He’s also keeping the door to featherweight cracked. Lopes said he wants to stay at lightweight and see how his speed and power carry up, but a No. 1 contender fight or another title shot at 145 would bring him back down. He added that a return would take time because “my body changed, but my focus now is 155.”
Quick take
I love the attitude, and the sequence here is the most useful part of the story: three opponents offered, three yeses, and then Lopes was the one who picked up the phone when the Tsarukyan fight collapsed. That’s how you end up headlining in December. The harder part is the one Lopes named himself. “This is my first fight at ’55,” he said, and he pointed out that everyone else in the division has lived there their whole careers. Your lightweight debut coming against Oliveira means you find out on fight night whether the power and the cardio made the trip with you, and I’ll want to see Lopes’ first round on Dec. 12 before I believe the move was free.
