{"id":759368,"date":"2026-06-25T03:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T03:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/759368\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T03:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T03:22:09","slug":"diego-lopes-reveals-talks-with-the-ufc-for-lightweight-matchups-reason-behind-his-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/759368\/","title":{"rendered":"Diego Lopes reveals talks with the UFC for lightweight matchups, reason behind his move"},"content":{"rendered":"

UFC featherweight staple Diego Lopes, fresh off a thunderous knockout win, seems eager to make a mark at a higher weight class. <\/p>\n

Diego Lopes has opened up about his plans to compete at a higher weight class, the lightweight division, to be specific.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Additionally, the knockout artist asserted that the UFC<\/a> are on board with his plans. Lopes also highlighted why he’s choosing to move up in weight despite being the No. 2-ranked contender in the UFC featherweight division.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Diego Lopes is coming off an impressive win at UFC Freedom 250, and he’s eyeing lightweight fights<\/p>\n

Diego Lopes’s most recent octagon appearance witnessed him secure a spectacular knockout victory against Steve Garcia. It was the opening fight of the historic UFC Freedom 250 event, which went down at the White House in Washington on June 14.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As of this time, Lopes holds the No. 2 spot in both the UFC’s official Meta rankings as well as the media rankings listed on the official UFC website. The Garcia matchup was a featherweight clash, and Lopes now seems interested in making his lightweight divisional debut.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Diego Lopes recounts talks with the UFC, reason behind his seeking lightweight matchups<\/p>\n

During a recent appearance on MMA Junkie, Diego Lopes<\/a> suggested that he’s tall enough, at 5’11”, to compete with the best in the UFC lightweight division. He also implied that he possesses the frame to add weight optimally and a few dietary changes could help him put on the requisite weight.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old has primarily competed at featherweight in his professional MMA career, with a few catchweight matchups and even a bantamweight bout.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Well, Lopes seemed to suggest that he isn’t exiting the featherweight division permanently but believes that he’s more likely to get a title shot at lightweight sooner. That’s because he’s already faced and lost to the reigning UFC featherweight champ Alexander Volkanovski twice.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lopes stated, “Yeah. So, I want to move to ’55 (lightweight) to make a couple of fights. I really like the idea… I just lost two times to (Alexander) Volkanovski. He’s still here in the division. I don’t think I have the shot for the title soon.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Moreover, Lopes indicated that he didn’t care if he fought a lower-ranked opponent, which is why he fought lower-ranked foes twice after his title fights against Volkanovski.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For context, Lopes first fought Volkanovski for the vacant UFC featherweight title in April of 2025, losing via unanimous decision. The Brazil-born Mexico-based combatant returned to the win column in his next fight, stopping Jean Silva via second-round TKO in September of 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Following that, Lopes challenged Volkanovski for the featherweight belt in February of this year, but he suffered a unanimous decision defeat again. He bounced back by beating Steve Garcia via second-round KO at UFC Freedom 250 earlier this month.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Expounding upon his imminent move to lightweight, Lopes explained that he’s spoken about it to the UFC, who he implied were supportive of his plan. Lopes said, “This week I talk with UFC about this. UFC like the idea, too.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Furthermore, when asked if he’d like matchups against exciting lightweight contenders such as Dan Hooker, Mauricio Ruffy, and Charles Oliveira, Lopes emphasized that he’s open to all opponents in the top-five, perhaps even the top-seven at lightweight.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Watch Diego Lopes address his lightweight plans below (*comments at the 1:30-minute mark of the video):\u00a0<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UFC featherweight staple Diego Lopes, fresh off a thunderous knockout win, seems eager to make a mark at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":759369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,36995,641,638,82,1159,640,252100],"class_list":["post-759368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-diego-lopes","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-steve-garcia","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-freedom-250-topuria-vs-gaethje"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759368","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=759368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/759369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=759368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=759368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=759368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}