Diego Lopes fell short in his quest to become UFC champion after suffering yet another defeat to Alexander Volkanovski, and in doing so, suffered brutal injuries
Diego Lopes broke not one, but both of his feet during his rematch defeat to Alexander Volkanovski on Saturday night.
The Brazilian was out for revenge having lost to the Australian champion in their first meeting last April. Lopes, 31, showed glimpses in that fight, but ultimately came away empty-handed. As he ventured into enemy territory, the challenger was willing to leave it all in the cage.
But from the first second, Volkanovski showed the gulf in class, having controlled proceedings right from the very first bell. The 37-year-old UFC veteran worked well behind the jab, making the challenger second guess throughout. Volkanovski was sent crashing to the canvas – very briefly – in the third before rallying in the final two rounds to come away with the unanimous decision victory.
Midway through the fight, Lopes attempted to throw a kick to Volkanovski’s body, and while he succeeded, he clearly felt some discomfort as he was unable to move freely for the rest of the fight. The Brazilian was rushed to hospital post-fight and was handed a major blow after it emerged that he broke both of his feet during the sequel Down Under.
CEO and founder of Iridium Sports Agency Jason House – who also happens to be Lopes’ manager – escorted the UFC star to the hospital in Sydney just moments after the main event. House shared a photo of his star client looking rather happy sitting on a hospital bed to his Instagram story.
“Looks like we broke both feet.” he wrote, before adding: “Some nights you’re at the afterparty, some nights you’re at the ER [Emergency Room]. But every morning I give thanks for the opportunity to live this life with my best friends.”
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Reacting after the defeat, Lopes told Daniel Cormier: “I think (Alexander) Volkanovski is one of the best guys ever in the division. He made a lot of things in there round by round,” while Volkanovski said: “It ain’t getting any easier, I can tell you that. Uh camp, you know, there was a lot of things going on in there and we pushed through. The beauty is, as I alway say, adversity is a privilege.
“I love it. Sometimes things go wrong and I am like ‘let’s go.’ That’s more of a challenge and that’s what fires me up even more. And then you have got a young and hungry guy like that (Lopes) in there. Man, I wanted to take him out, I wanted to grab a hold of him and put him down, but he was strong. And I did not want to stand with him for 25 minutes if I am going to be honest. But we got the job done, so it’s all good.” He added: “I almost got my moment in Perth (referring to his loss to Islam Makhachev in 2023) but I got my moment here in Sydney!”
Elsewhere on the main card, Benoit Saint Denis’ meteoric resurgence up the lightweight division continued after he brutally knocked out a bloodied Dan Hooker in the second round. Mauricio Ruffy got back to winning ways after he stopped Rafael Fiziev in the second round, while Tallison Teixeira scored a unanimous decision victory over Tai Tuivasa. Rising star Quillan Salkilld kicked off the main card in a big way after forcing Jamie Mullarkey to tap in the first round.
