Brazilian Diego Lopes defeated Hawaii’s Dan Ige in the co-main event at UFC 303: Pereira vs Prochazka 2. The latter took the fight on less than a day notice, replacing Brian Ortega of Los Angeles. The MMA event aired live on PPV from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on June 29, during the 12th annual International Fight Week.
Lopes (25-6) was originally scheduled to face Ortega (16-3) at featherweight. A day before the event the fight was moved to lightweight. On the day of the event, after Ortega fell ill and was forced to withdraw, Ige (18-8) stepped in to face off Lopez in a bout contested at 165-pound catchweight.
Ige was scheduled to fight Chepe Mariscal in a featherweight bout at UFC Vegas 94 on July 20. He was approved by Nevada Athletic Commission and the fight against Lopes was good to go.
Lopes, who was 146.5 lbs at the time he was told the fight against Ortega was moved to 155, defeated Ige by unanimous decision decision. After three rounds, all three scores were 29-28.
Post-fight, both Diego Lopes and Dan Ige said they wanted to fight at UFC 306 aka Riyadh Season Noche UFC.
