{"id":315135,"date":"2025-11-28T21:47:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T21:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/315135\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T21:47:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T21:47:10","slug":"diego-lopes-responds-to-critics-of-ufc-325-title-shot-stop-whining","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/315135\/","title":{"rendered":"Diego Lopes responds to critics of UFC 325 title shot: &#8216;Stop whining&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Diego Lopes is unbothered by the outcry of fans and fellow contenders after being awarded a second chance against featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski at <a href=\"https:\/\/mmajunkie.usatoday.com\/events\/ufc-325-volkanovski-vs-lopes-2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:UFC 325;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">UFC 325<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Lopes (27-7 MMA, 6-2 UFC) has been the center of controversy after UFC CEO Dana White <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/articles\/alexander-volkanovski-vs-diego-lopes-231314861.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:announced Thursday;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">announced Thursday<\/a> that a rematch with Volkanovski (27-4 MMA, 14-3 UFC) would serve as the Jan. 31 headliner at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney (Paramount+).<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>The sentiment around Lopes getting the fight has largely been negative. Fans have vented frustration, former champion Aljamain Sterling issued <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/articles\/aljamain-sterling-rips-nonsense-volkanovski-151521525.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:a fiery rant;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a fiery rant<\/a>, Lerone Murphy <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/articles\/lerone-murphy-movsar-evloev-react-020035214.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:was heartbroken;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">was heartbroken<\/a> and Movsar Evloev was unsurprised. Still, this is the fight that&#8217;s happening, and Lopes made it clear on Friday that he isn&#8217;t letting any negative get him down (via <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Diegolopesmma\/status\/1994497653821116695\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:X;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">X<\/a>):<\/p>\n<p>Since losing <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/article\/ufc-314-results-alexander-volkanovski-053229478.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:a unanimous decision;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a unanimous decision<\/a> to Volkanovski in a vacant title bout at UFC 314 in April, Lopes has rebounded with a <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/article\/ufc-fight-night-259-results-012431436.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:thrilling TKO finish;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">thrilling TKO finish<\/a> of Jean Silva at Noche UFC in September.<\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: <a href=\"https:\/\/mmajunkie.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/ufc\/2025\/11\/28\/diego-lopes-responds-critics-ufc-325-title-shot-stop-whining\/87512664007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Diego Lopes responds to critics of UFC 325 title shot: &#039;Stop whining&#039;;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Diego Lopes responds to critics of UFC 325 title shot: &#8216;Stop whining&#8217;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Diego Lopes is unbothered by the outcry of fans and fellow contenders after being awarded a second chance&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[34341,33438,64,63,44864,178129,786,39840,785,85,787],"class_list":{"0":"post-315135","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-alexander-volkanovski","9":"tag-aljamain-sterling","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-diego-lopes","13":"tag-featherweight-champion","14":"tag-fighting","15":"tag-lerone-murphy","16":"tag-mma","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-ufc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}