Diego Lopes plans to win quick at UFC 306, then corner Alexa Grasso on same night
Diego Lopes expects to be in Alexa Grasso’s corner when she faces Valentina Shevchenko for a third time for the UFC women’s flyweight title at UFC 306 on Sept. 14, and that’s another incentive for him to seek a quick finish against Brian Ortega earlier that night.
Lopes and Ortega are scheduled to compete in the third bout of the main card at The Sphere, with Grasso co-headlining the show right before Sean O’Malley vs. Merab Dvalishvili. Lopes hopes he can leaves the cage injury-free to be there for his teammate.
“We have talked about this a lot, how we’re going to handle this, because I’ve been in her corner ever since she moved to 125 [pounds],” Lopes told MMA Fighting. “We work together, we help each other, I teach her and learn from her, but we have no idea what we’re going to do. I’ll fight my fight, and then comes Alexa. We know how we come out of a fight, especially knowing how tough Ortega is. It could be a war and we both might come out bad. [Laughs.] But I’m focused. It’s extra motivation to come out fine in this fight, to win quickly and rush to the locker room, change clothes and be in Alexa’s corner.”
Lopes said he asked his team to try to move his fight down the card, but understands why it’s positioned as it is. The Brazilian athlete is on a roll after winning four straight UFC bouts in just under 11 months against Gavin Tucker, Pat Sabatini, Sodiq Yusuff, and Dan Ige.
Ortega is a two-time title challenger who submitted Yair Rodriguez in his most recent octagon appearance.
“I’d rather fight early,” Lopes said. “I even told the guys I would have no problem being the first fight of the night, or two or three fights before [Grasso], so I can be there with her. But where we are on the card speaks of the great work we’re doing. And we’ll also have out teammate Irene Aldana on the card. It’s great for our team, having three fighters in one of the most spectacular and well-produced cards in the UFC.”
Grasso is also expected to be cornered by Francisco Grasso, her uncle and head coach at Lobo Gym, and Alessandro Costa, who competes a week earlier at UFC Vegas 97.
“We know we can do incredible things when we’re all four there,” Lopes said. “We’ve done incredible things, and I’m extra motivated to win quickly and run to the locker room and be in her corner as well.”
Mexico’s Lobo Gym has done incredible things in the UFC, indeed.
Other than Lopes and flyweight champion Grasso, the team has also led Aldana to a title shot against former 135-pound champion Amanda Nunes. Aldana beat Karol Rosa earlier this year to rebound from that championship loss, and now faces Norma Dumont at UFC 306. Costa faces Matt Schnell on Sept. 7 after a bonus-winning knockout of Kevin Borjas at UFC 301 in May, and Loopy Godinez continues to rise as a strawweight prospect despite stumbling against veterans Virna Jandiroba and Mackenzie Dern this past year.
Lopes was even nominated for Breakthrough Fighter of the Year at the 2024 World MMA Awards, plus Submission of the Year for his triangle armbar over Gavin Tucker. Lobo Gym is also in the running for best gym and Coach of the Year (Francisco Grasso).
“It’s incredible for us,” Lopes said. “Not too long ago people were leaving Mexico for other places to evolve, but we’ve done an excellent work here. Alexa won four awards last year training and evolving in Mexico, and now I have the honor of being nominated breakthrough fighter and also best submission. That goes to show the work we’ve done here as a team.”
“Our team is running against other teams that have bigger name and more than 10 athletes in the UFC,” he continued. “We only have five fighters in the UFC, and four of them are ranked — and our great teammate Alessandro Costa is fighting the No. 12 ranked next. Our coach has done a great job.”