Diego Lopes had a whirlwind couple of days leading to his fight at UFC 303, but the highly touted featherweight contender kept his winning streak alive despite a valiant effort from Dan Ige, who accepted the fight just a few hours earlier.
With Brian Ortega sick and unable to compete, Lopes opted to stay on the card against Ige, who lives nearby and answered the call when UFC needed him to save the day. Even with no chance to actually prepare for Lopes, much less a three-round fight, Ige put on a truly game performance.
That being said, Lopes showcased strong striking and a dominant grappling game through the first 10 minutes, before Ige stormed back and gave Lopes everything he could handle in the final round. Still, Lopes did enough to get the job done, with all three judges scoring the fight 29-28 in his favor.
“Dan Ige, thank you so much, brother,” Lopes said after his win. “All the respect to Dan Ige. Not many fighters take a fight on three hours’ notice. Whomever, whenever, however, I’ll fight anybody. It doesn’t matter. I’ll fight anybody.”
There was no feeling out process as Lopes and Ige both came out throwing heavy leather from the first exchange. Lopes showed his size and reach advantage, launching his attacks from the outside, but Ige was more than willing to trade with him, especially when he closed the distance.
Lopes threw with heavy force behind every strike, but Ige did a good job keep his hands up to play defense without letting too much slip through. Late in the opening round, Ige went for a takedown, which led to a Lopes guillotine choke attempt that turned into a D’arce choke.
While the submission threatened him for a moment, Ige stayed patient and calm before breaking free to make it to the second round.
On the restart, Lopes began targeting the lead leg with a series of blistering kicks that resulted in some immediate damage showing on Ige’s calf. A scramble led to a grappling exchange, with Lopes jumping on the back before locking on a body triangle.
Ige continued to defend very well, but Lopes refused to give up the position without a struggle. Just before the round ended, Ige started throwing punches backward looking to damage Lopes however possible until the horn sounded.
At the urging of his corner, Ige started letting his hands go under the realization that he was down two rounds and needed a finish to get the win. That led to Ige launching a nasty straight right that snapped Lopes’ head back for his best punch of the fight.
Ige connected with another stiff shot, and that forced Lopes to dive for the takedown to try and slow the action. When he couldn’t get the takedown, Ige landed on top and began hammering away with punches and elbows, with several slipping through Lopes’ defense.
Unfortunately, Ige just couldn’t inflict enough damage to truly sway the fight in his favor, but he definitely earned everybody’s respect with his performance and somehow coming back to win that third round.
“It doesn’t matter — eight weeks, six weeks, four weeks, four hours, it doesn’t matter,” Ige shouted. “This is what I live for. This is an opportunity to become a legend. To show up on four hours’ notice at International Fight Week … I couldn’t be happier with my performance.”
Considering he was preparing for a tall, rangy grappler like Ortega and ended up with a shorter, power puncher in Ige, Lopes deserves a lot of credit for even competing on Saturday and risking his win streak. Now he’s looking to either settle some unfinished business with Ortega or perhaps draw a former featherweight champion in his next outing.
“I spoke to the UFC, put me on the Sphere,” Lopes said referencing Noche UFC in September. “Is it going to be Ortega? Is it going to be [Alexander] Volkanovski? I’m ready for it.”
