{"id":163336,"date":"2025-09-23T08:20:23","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T08:20:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/163336\/"},"modified":"2025-09-23T08:20:23","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T08:20:23","slug":"diego-lopes-offers-to-fight-charles-oliveira-at-ufc-rio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/163336\/","title":{"rendered":"Diego Lopes offers to fight Charles Oliveira at UFC Rio"},"content":{"rendered":"

Everyone wants to fight \u201cDo Bronx\u201d \u2026 kind of<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The search for the second half of the UFC Rio<\/a> main event is still ongoing after Rafael Fiziev withdrew late last week (details here<\/a>). Charles Oliveira hasn\u2019t been shy about his frustration<\/a>, calling fighters \u201cpathetic<\/a>\u201d for declining the opportunity behind the scenes. The lone exception so far has been Mateusz Gamrot, who continues to campaign loudly<\/a> for the 155-pound showdown.<\/p>\n

Now, another name has stepped forward: No. 2-seeded<\/a> Featherweight contender, Diego Lopes.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, why not? Of course I\u2019d accept, especially because Charles is a legend,\u201d Lopes recently told Laerte Viana<\/a>. \u201cAnd like I\u2019ve always said, man, I\u2019ll never turn down a fight. If you think I\u2019m the right guy to fight him and you call me, then definitely yes, no problem, without even thinking twice.\u201d<\/p>\n

With UFC Rio just weeks away on Oct. 11 inside Farmasi Arena, the promotion is running out of time to secure an opponent. And while Lopes is technically a Featherweight, his surging star power makes him an intriguing option \u2014 especially after dismantling Jean Silva at Noche UFC 3<\/a> and handing the fellow Brazilian his first-ever UFC loss via knockout (watch highlights<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Still, Lightweight options remain on the table. Gamrot continues to push hard, mocking Oliveira on social media:<\/p>\n

Other potential matchups include an all-Brazil clash with No. 11-ranked<\/a> Renato Moicano, or a rematch against No. 8-seeded<\/a>, Beneil Dariush.<\/p>\n

With Oliveira waiting and time ticking down, UFC has some tough choices ahead; however, whether it\u2019s Gamrot, Lopes or another dark horse, it seems clear that everyone wants a piece of \u201cDo Bronx.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Everyone wants to fight \u201cDo Bronx\u201d \u2026 kind of. The search for the second half of the UFC…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":163337,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,33601,638,82,702],"class_list":["post-163336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}