Diego Lopes skilled the perfect and the worst of struggle evening at UFC 306.
The featherweight contender’s personal bout couldn’t have gone higher as he gained a convincing unanimous choice over the extremely ranked Brian Ortega on Saturday’s foremost card. Sadly for Lopes, he needed to cope with a significant disappointment as one struggle later he was in Alexa Grasso’s nook serving as a coach for her flyweight championship loss to Valentina Shevchenko.
Grasso misplaced a listless choice to Shevchenko, along with her poor efficiency bringing an anticlimactic finish to her trilogy with “Bullet.” On the night’s post-fight press convention, Lopes couldn’t pinpoint precisely what went incorrect for his teammate.
“I feel Alexa froze and wasn’t within the struggle tonight,” Lopes mentioned by way of a Spanish translator. “Valentina didn’t do a lot both. What did she do? She simply took her to the bottom and tried to manage her there. Didn’t do any harm, she didn’t do something both.”
It was apparent by Lopes’ demeanor that he muted his personal celebration on the post-fight press convention within the wake of Grasso’s championship defeat. Nevertheless, it wasn’t simply seeing the flyweight title change fingers that soured Lopes’ temper.
Touted as a celebration of Mexican Independence Day weekend, UFC 306 noticed various Mexican-born fighters fall flat, together with Daniel Zellhuber, Irene Aldana, and the closely favored Yazmin Jauregui. Lopes would have beloved to have seen his fellow countrymen share in his success.
“I’m a little bit bit upset about all of the Mexicans who misplaced the struggle tonight,” Lopes mentioned. “Clearly, I’m proud of my win, however I wished extra Mexicans to win. However that is the hardest sport on this planet. You’ll be able to’t all the time get what you need, so yeah, I’m a bit upset about that.”
Lopes has no regrets about having to hurry to organize for Grasso’s title struggle after his personal bout concluded and he seems ahead to going over Grasso’s efficiency when the post-UFC 306 insanity has settled down.
“I actually need to help everybody from my crew, so I made certain I wished to be there for Alexa,” Lopes mentioned. “Sadly, we didn’t get the win tonight and I wasn’t in a position to communicate along with her as a result of I used to be introduced up right here for all my media commitments, however I’m trying ahead to talking along with her after this.”
