For a long time now, the faces at the top of the UFC’s featherweight division have remained the same cast of elite level competitors.
Ilia Topuria breathed a lot of new life into the 145-pound title mix after he took the title off of the long-time champion, Alexander Volkanovski, earlier this year.
At UFC 306 this weekend, Diego Lopes will look to enter that conversation by taking out another of the division’s stalwart contenders in Brian Ortega.
With Volkanovski watching closely as Topuria defends the belt for the first time against Max Holloway at UFC 308, there are some very exciting potential fights on the horizon for Lopes if he’s able to get past “T-City” on September 14.
Diego Lopes Says Max Holloway Is His Dream Fight Whether It’s For A Title Or Not
In a recent interview with Submission Radio, Lopes gave his thoughts on who he would rather face out of that trio of world class fighters.
With four consecutive wins under his belt since a defeat on his late notice debut, the Brazilian finds himself in a big opportunity to leap up the top 15 rankings if he can take out Ortega, who holds the #3 position right now.
None of these fights are that far away for him if he puts on a big performance at the Sphere on Saturday night and though he rates all three men highly, his preference is to fight Holloway.
Lopes sees a clash with “Blessed” as his ideal scenario because of the respect that he has for the BMF champion.
That being said, he did also mention inevitably facing the current champion Topuria down the line as two of the division’s most exciting additions in recent years are sure to meet at some stage.
“Bro, I’m big fans for the Max and the Volk but my dream fight is Max. My dream fight is Max, a lot of respect for Max. The guy stay in the UFC for so long time, the guy fight everybody, everybody in the rankings, everybody in the UFC. Max is my dream fight, title or no title. Max is my dream fight for so much respect for your career but for who you want to fight for the title, I don’t know bro. I think the division needs the new face you know, I think it’s me and Ilia is the big fight for everybody, for the new face.”
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