Lopes received game-changing advice from one of his cornermen
at the White House.
Lopes opened
UFC Freedom 250 against Steve
Garcia (19-6) at the White House on Sunday. While the opening
round was closely contested, Lopes believes he might have been
behind on the scorecards. However, Lopes dropped Garcia with a
massive left hand midway through Round 2 before finishing him with
ground-and-pound.
Lopes subsequently revealed that he received the fight-ending
advice from
UFC flyweight Alessandro
Costa, who was in his corner. Costa told Lopes to step back
when Garcia landed on him the first time. Costa then told Lopes to
stand ground on the second connection and counter with a
three-punch combination. Lopes paid heed to Costa’s advice and
dropped Garcia with the third punch of his combination.
“The whole credit I give to my brother, Alessandro,” Lopes said in
a post-fight interview with the UFC. “He told me, ‘Hey, he connects
you, you step back, the second time you stay and hit him with three
punches.’ When I hit him, I missed the first one, I missed the
second one, I connected with No. 3. All thanks to Allesandro. He
did a great job in the corner.”
Costa is currently on a two-fight finishing streak. “Nono” was
helping Lopes in camp when he received the call for a short-notice
fight against Matt
Schnell. Costa made a turnaround of two months to knock Schnell
out last weekend. Costa had also hoped that his momentum would
carry over to Lopes for the White House fight.
Moving on Up
Lopes (28-8) is now eyeing a move up to lightweight, even if
temporary, to let his body recover. While Lopes will stay put at
featherweight if the UFC wants him to, the Brazilian admits that he
will have to compromise on the food that he loves.
“I just need to talk with the UFC,” Lopes said. “I want to move to
155 [pounds] for a couple of fights. To fulfill my body. But if the
UFC want me to stay at 145, I need to be more disciplined with my
diet again. I need to stay. But I love food. I want to move to 155…
I’m healthy, I have no injuries, I hope the UFC can book another
fight for me soon. If it is at 155, I’m going to prove I can fight
at that weight class.”
“This is the best fight to open the
card.”Diego
Lopes (@Diegolopesmma)
kicks
#UFCWhiteHouse off in incredible fashion with his second-round
finishResults ➡️ https://t.co/4gnn4tCvBC
[ UFC Freedom 250 presented by @cryptocom &
@ramtrucks ]
pic.twitter.com/eIEkGgPevq— UFC News (@UFCNews)
June 15, 2026