Diego Lopes is well aware of Jean Silva’s tactics ahead of their Noche UFC main event in San Antonio on Sept. 13.
From social media comments and takedown bet props, Silva has verbally attacked Lopes since the featherweight clash was made official, but the former UFC title contender promised it won’t affect him before or during their five-round match.
“He’s definitely trying to [get in my head], but that won’t happen,” Lopes told MMA Fighting. “That simply won’t happen.”
Silva is 5-0 in the UFC with a 100 percent finish rate, capped off by his recent second-round submission over Bryce Mitchell. Lopes, 5-2 in the promotion, feels he’s one step ahead of his fellow Brazilian in every aspect of the game.
“I think I’ve done jiu-jitsu with more high level guys, and done well,” Lopes said. “I’ve traded with high level guys, and also done well. I’m not looking for an easy path, nor a way that will get me the victory in an easier way. I want to implement my game inside the octagon and come out with the victory.
“I know the weight of my hand, I know I can connect a good hand on him, he can go down and then I can go after the submission. I know I can take him down, get on top and submit him. I know I can end on bottom and submit him. I have more weapons, understand? I’m not thinking like, ‘I’ll trade with him because I want to prove I’m better [striker] than him. I’ll take him down because I want to prove I’m better than him on the ground.’ No, I don’t want to prove anything. I’m simply going there to win the fight.”
Lopes spent weeks improving his wrestling in Oklahoma and said his camp “was completely different from the last one,” referring to his title match with Alexander Volkanovski. Lopes lost that bout via unanimous decision.
“More than doing different things and going back to what we’ve done in preparation for fights before the Volkanovski one,” Lopes said. “Knowing he’s more aggressive, it’s a style that also favors us. We’re basically going back to that point, also knowing what we have, the aggressiveness. Aggressiveness against aggressiveness, we know what we’ll get.”
Looking back at his failed attempt to claim UFC gold, Lopes feels fans often diminish his performance rather than praise Volkanovski.
“The match-up asked for that [strategy],” Lopes said. “People tend to look at it like, ‘It was Diego’s mistake, his flaw.’ But people don’t give Volk enough credit. When we traded hands, when he stood in front of me, I always connected the better strikes. When he did his game plan, always walking to my left side and winning the angle, that’s what he did right. People forget that and only see [my] flaws, and that’s taking merit away from the opponent. Of course I could have done more, but I think that was his merit in that fight.”
Volkanovski has been very vocal about his desire to compete on more time in 2025, suggesting a clash with Lerone Murphy in December, and Lopes feels he would be back into title contention with an emphatic victory over the popular Fighting Nerd this weekend.
“I think that all depends on how we win the fight,” Lopes said “It could be a close decision, or maybe a split decision in a war, or just a boring fight. A good knockout, a good submission. But I think that winning this fight well, really dominant and showing we are superior to Jean, that will definitely make the UFC think of my name again. But if they choose Lerone Murphy, let’s go for the next fight, no problem at all.”
