A day after the UFC announced Diego Lopes vs. Jean Silva as the main event of Noche UFC 3 on Sept. 13, Silva went back to a week-old tweet from Lopes to suggest a bet. Lopes was working on his wrestling in Oklahoma, and Silva suggested a bet.<\/p>\n
\u201cI bet my purse that you don\u2019t take me down,\u201d Silva wrote in Portuguese. \u201cGo on, keep lying to yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lopes, who went two for five in takedown attempts over seven UFC bouts \u2014 winning five of those matches \u2014, reacted to the offer in a conversation with MMA Fighting.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t even see that,\u201d Lopes said with a laugh. \u201cI\u2019m only seeing this message two months later [laughs].\u201d<\/p>\n
Silva is 5-0 with five finishes in the UFC, including a recent second-round submission over Bryce Mitchell, and has given away four takedowns in 28 attempts by his UFC opponents.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrother, leave him with his money,\u201d Lopes laughed. \u201cI don\u2019t want to make him have no money. Leave him with his money because I think he will need the money, right?\u201d<\/p>\n
Lopes has shown great jiu-jitsu skills and knockout power so far in the UFC, losing only to top-ranked contender Movsar Evloev \u2014 on short notice \u2014 and a UFC title clash with Alexander Volkanovski. All that, he said, without training wrestling until January 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I went there [to Oklahoma], it wasn\u2019t my idea to learn wrestling for MMA,\u201d Lopes said. \u201cEvery time I learn a new sport or something new, I like to learn it from scratch. I don\u2019t like to adapt anything to my sport, you know? I was in a gym where everybody was All-Americans, world champions, Pan-American champions, Olympic athletes. and that changes your head completely. What I did, more than anything, was learn from zero what wrestling is all about.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I went there to learn wrestling they said, \u2018Oh, you have a good base,\u2019\u201d he continued. \u201cOf course, because of jiu-jitsu, but I didn\u2019t want to just have a good base and make it stronger. I wanted to learn more things. When I went there in January, that was before they announced the Volk fight. I didn\u2019t even know I was going to fight him. My goal was to learn and make my takedown defense better, because I don\u2019t have good takedown defense, but I\u2019m getting better at it. In the Volk fight, of the 11 takedowns he tried, I defended 10.\u201d<\/p>\n
When they meet inside the cage on Sept. 13 in San Antonio, Texas, Lopes expects the Fighting Nerds talent to keep it on the feet instead of testing his wrestling abilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think he will try to take me down, man,\u201d Lopes laughed. \u201cNot underestimating him or any of that. He might try \u2014 but like you said, if he takes me down, I have no problem being on the bottom. But I don\u2019t think he will do that. He won\u2019t try to take me down. I\u2019ll be really surprised if he tries to take me down.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m only seeing this [bet] comment now because you\u2019re showing me,\u201d he continued. \u201cCool. Let him be, man. I didn\u2019t go [to Oklahoma] to learn takedowns or anything specific for this fight. I went there to improve myself, to learn true wrestling. I didn\u2019t go there to learn takedowns for MMA or any of that. Of all my fights, people see that I have a good ground game, I know how to submit people.\u201d<\/p>\n