This past Saturday at Noche UFC, we saw a highly anticipated featherweight matchup in the main event. Former title challenger Diego Lopes (27-7) took on surging top contender Jean Silva (16-3).
Everyone who broke this fight down thought that we’d get a war in this matchup and that’s exactly what we got on Saturday night. From the opening round, this was absolute chaos until the finish.
Lopes definitely got the better of things in the opening round, but Silva started to come on strong in the second. It even seemed that Lopes might’ve been hurt and Silva threw caution to the wind as he went in for the finish.
That’s when he was caught by a perfectly timed spinning back elbow from Lopes that sent him to the mat. Lopes hoped on his back and followed up with shots that stopped the fight giving him the big win at Noche UFC.
What’s next after Noche UFC?
This was the perfect bounce back performance for Lopes after falling short fighting for the title back in April against Alexander Volkanovski. He needed a big win to show that he can bounce back and that’s what he did.
So now, what does the UFC do with Lopes next? I think there are two clear options if you ask me. Lerone Murphy is likely getting the next title shot against Volkanovski which leaves room for a title eliminator. I think you have to put Lopes in that spot.
In terms of an opponent the two options are Aljamain Sterling and Movsar Evloev. Evloev is the number one contender and he’s fought Lopes before on extremely short notice. Lopes earned a UFC contract off that loss because he nearly defeated Evloev multiple times.
Sterling is the former bantamweight champion and he’s coming off a dominant win over Brian Ortega last month in China. One of those two will fight Lopes next and the winner of that fight will get a featherweight title shot.
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