{"id":772441,"date":"2026-07-01T16:31:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T16:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/772441\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T16:31:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T16:31:13","slug":"diego-lopes-admits-yair-rodriguez-fight-might-make-sense-would-rather-choose-155-for-ufc-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/772441\/","title":{"rendered":"Diego Lopes admits Yair Rodriguez fight \u2018might make sense,\u2019 would rather \u2018choose 155\u2019 for UFC return"},"content":{"rendered":"

Diego Lopes knows that he\u2019s never going to get another featherweight title shot for as long as Alexander Volkanovski is 145-pound champion, having already been defeated by \u201cThe Great\u201d in two separate title fights<\/a>. That\u2019s why the Brazilian is contemplating a jump to 155 pounds, unless matchmakers are able to get Yair Rodriguez to sign on the dotted line.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne name that might make sense is Yair Rodriguez because of the history between us, but we haven\u2019t heard anything about him in over a year and a half,\u201d Lopes told MMA Fighting<\/a>. \u201cSince I fought in Miami, I\u2019ve already fought three times, and nobody knows what\u2019s happened with him. If the UFC gives me the opportunity to keep fighting in both divisions, I\u2019d love that. But if they told me, \u2018You have to pick one weight class,\u2019 then considering where things stand right now, and with Volkanovski still being the champion, I think I\u2019d choose 155.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI have this desire to move up to 155 and take on an exciting fight,\u201d Lopes added. \u201cI think there are some great matchups for me in the top five or top six, fights that fit my style really well. So I honestly don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen in my division. I had a conversation with the UFC this past weekend and we actually talked more about the lightweight division than the featherweight division. I think the possibilities for a fight at 155 are opening up even more. We\u2019ll see what happens and what the UFC\u2019s plans are as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 31 year-old Lopes (28-8) annihilated Steve Garcia at UFC White House<\/a> earlier this month in Washington, DC and has only lost to Volkanovski across his last nine fights. If Lopes can secure another matchup over the next few months then it will mark the third time he\u2019s notched three fights within a single calendar year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Diego Lopes knows that he\u2019s never going to get another featherweight title shot for as long as Alexander…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":772442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,40762,785,85,1396,125620],"class_list":["post-772441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-news","tag-ufc-white-house-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772441","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=772441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/772442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=772441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=772441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=772441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}