With Brian Ortega out, Dan Ige steps in to face Diego Lopes in new UFC 303 co-main event

A very late change has been made to the UFC 303 co-main event.

Brian Ortega was unable to compete on Saturday night after he struggled through a weight cut that forced the fight to move from featherweight to lightweight. Now Ortega has been ruled out and Dan Ige will replace him against Diego Lopes in the new fight announced at the start of the UFC 303 pay-per-view main card.

It’s a wild turn of events with Ige accepting the opportunity to fight Lopes on the shortest notice in UFC history because he wasn’t even scheduled to compete at UFC 303. Ige dropped a teaser on Twitter that clearly eluded to the fight he accepted against Lopes.

“So you wanna be a BMF?” Ige wrote.

With a 3-1 record in his past five fights, Ige is definitely a threat even if he’s taking the fight with no training camp or preparation to get ready to face one of the fastest rising stars on the entire UFC roster. Most recently, Ige knocked out Andre Fili in the first round back in February and he just recently booked a fight against Chepe Mariscal in July.

Now Ige clashes with Lopes, who comes into the fight off three straight wins — all by finish — including a stunning knockout over Sodiq Yusuff at UFC 300 in April.

Lopes vs. Ige joins the UFC 303 lineup with the main event still set as Alex Pereira defends his light heavyweight title against Jiri Prochazka.