It looks like Saturday night can’t come soon enough for Noche UFC headliners Diego Lopes and Jean Silva.
The two top-ranked featherweight contenders will finally square off this weekend in the highly-anticipated main event for Noche UFC 3, which takes place at the Frostbank Center in San Antonio, TX after the event was originally targeted for Guadalajara, Mexico.
Lopes and Silva will finally get to settle things in just a few days, but the pair did look like they were considering going after one another a bit early when they unexpectedly ran into each other during fight week.
Shared on Silva’s Instagram as part of a compilation video that also included several clips of the Brazilian enjoying the lead up to his first UFC main event, he and Lopes shared an icy stare down as “Lord” made his way up an escalator with his team.
A member of Brazil’s vaunted “Fighting Nerds”, Silva will face some additional pressure this weekend to get his team back into the win column and potentially vault himself into featherweight title contention in the process.
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Two of Silva’s teammates were teed up for big weekends last Saturday, with Caio Borralho and Mauricio Ruffy both in action at UFC Paris. Both men ended up suffering their first UFC losses, as Ruffy was submitted by Benoit Saint-Denis in the card’s co-main event before Borralho dropped a unanimous decision to Nassourdine Imavov in UFC Paris’ headlining attraction.
A win over Imavov could have set Borralho up for a crack at newly-crowned UFC Middleweight Champion Khamzat Chimaev, and Silva will hope that a victory against Lopes would put him next in line to challenge UFC Featherweight Champion Alexander Volkanovski.
Alexander Volkanovski (red gloves) shake hands with Diego Lopes (blue gloves) during UFC 314 at Kaseya Center. / Sam Navarro-Imagn Images
After coming up short against still-undefeated featherweight contender Movsar Evloev in his promotional debut in 2023, Lopes put together an impressive five-fight win streak that set him up for a shot at the vacant featherweight belt opposite Volkanovski at UFC 314.
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Despite his incredible success since joining the UFC, Lopes currently finds himself lined as a sizeable underdog heading into Noche UFC. Silva is currently on a 13-fight win streak dating back to 2018, which includes five-straight finishes in the UFC since joining the promotion off of Dana White’s Contender Series.
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