Following his recent win against Brian Ortega, Diego Lopes has expressed interest in battling former featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski.
Lopes’s win over Ortega was the biggest in his career and it saw him move up the MMA Global Rankings. The fighter is eager to prove himself in the cage and believes a match with Volk will be a good matchup. He says he is willing to face Volkanovski in the headliner of Fight Night Tampa, Florida.
“The Volk fight would be very interesting because he’s shown he can adapt well to everybody’s style. Especially when his opponent is taller, until he fought Topuria,” Lopes said. “But I think I can also adapt well to guys that are shorter than me, so it would be a very interesting fight.”
Lopes is also open to being a backup fighter for the Ilia Topuria vs. Max Holloway fight. He believes it would be an excellent opportunity to test his mettle.
“If that doesn’t happen, we’d like the possibility of fighting [Alexander] Volkanovski in December,” Lopes said. “He doesn’t like to wait, and neither do I, so that could be a good fight. A lot can happen, but I think the two most viable options for us right now are being the backup fighter in Abu Dhabi, or fighting Volkanovski in December. The UFC is aware that I’m available for [UFC 308], so it depends on what they want to do.”
The battle with Volk will be an interesting one as the former champion has not been in the cage since his loss to Topuria in February. However, many feel Lopes will be better suited to fight in the rematch against Mosar Evloev. He defeated Evloev in his UFC debut and has gone on to win five fights with post-fight bonuses. His opponent [Evloev] has only been in one battle after that and has offered a rematch to Lopes at UFC 307.
“The only possibility this fight happens is if the UFC really says, ‘OK, you fight him and win, and you’re next for the belt.’” Lopes said in an interview with MMA Fighting. “That’s the only way this fight happens at the moment, and I want a full camp. It’s very easy for him to call me out, knowing I just fought two weeks ago. I’ve been calling him out several times to fight with a full camp, and he never wanted it. The possibility of me accepting this fight now or fight him on short notice is zero.”
Although there is no confirmation or news from UFC,a matchup with Volk could be a good fit for Lopes. It would put him in the position of the next title contender.
