Lopes’ electrifying win vs. Silva sends reminder to rest of featherweight ladder

Diego Lopes wrapped up Noche UFC with an absolutely insane second-round stoppage win over Jean Silva, sending the crowd at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Texas, into hysterics while simultaneously reminding everyone that he’s one of the best featherweights on the planet.

Early in the opening round, Lopes turned a tactical mistake by the surging Fighting Nerds representative into a high-amplitude takedown, quickly transitioning to mount, where he rained down punches and elbows for the majority of the frame. Silva came out aggressively, finding his range and timing in the second, hitting Lopes with several thudding blows that had the momentum shifting into his favour.

Throughout the frame, Silva kept trying to land a spinning back elbow, throwing it in tight multiple times, but failing to land. Late in the second, as Silva was pressing forward and looking to get after Lopes along the fence, the recent title challenger spun and sliced Silva’s forehead wide open with the same elbow “Lord” had been trying to land all round long. Silva collapsed to the canvas, Lopes followed him to the mat, and the finish came soon after, as the Mexico-based Brazilian pounded out the finish.

This was a standout performance from Lopes, who showed the full complement of his arsenal, as well as his toughness and resolve, navigating the dicey moments in the second while still having the presence and wherewithal to connect with the fight-changing attack.

Despite coming off a championship fight against Alexander Volkanovski in April and Silva having yet to face, never mind beat, a Top-5 opponent, Lopes entered as the underdog. Combined with the trash talk coming out of Silva’s camp, he carried himself throughout the week with a little more of an edge than normal. That carried over into the Octagon and was funnelled into a fantastic performance.

With the two-time champ Volkanovski likely heading towards a fight with Lerone Murphy, it’ll be interesting to see what comes next for Lopes. He’s had tensions with Yair Rodriguez, who is coming off a win over Patricio Pitbull in April, and has a history with undefeated No. 1 contender Movsar Evloev, whom he pushed to the brink in his short-notice debut at UFC 288.

One potential wild card to keep an eye on? Youssef Zalal, who is 4-0 since returning to the UFC and looking to add another win to his resume at UFC 320 when he steps in with Top-10 mainstay Josh Emmett. A win there could lead to a potentially electric clash between Lopes and “The Moroccan Devil” with a spot at the top of the list of contenders on the line.

A TALE OF TWO FIGHTS

Towards the end of Saturday’s prelims, a pair of fights played out in a similar fashion, with the final seconds of each contest dictating the outcome.

In the first of the two matchups, Tatiana Suarez registered a unanimous decision win over fellow recent title challenger Amanda Lemos to get things moving in the right direction again. The high-level grappler leaned on her skills in the clinch and on the canvas to grind out the win, controlling Lemos for long stretches while failing to do much in the way of damage or even hunting submissions before the Brazilian desperately tried to chase down a finish.

In the very next fight, Claudio Puelles followed a similar approach as Suarez against Joaquim Silva, successfully wrestling and controlling him through the first and for the early parts of the second. But midway through the frame, Silva hurt Puelles to the body, and after getting wrestled in the first half of the third, Silva clipped the Peruvian and continued to land big shots through to the horn.

Suarez survived to win a decision, while Silva was able to shift things in his favour with his late rally, landing on the fortunate side of a split decision verdict. Both of these fights highlighted the impact of damage and actively working to finish fights when it comes to the judges’ criteria and, ultimately, the scorecards.

Lemos had moments, but she couldn’t create enough opportunities to land with significance to overcome Suarez’s grappling advantage. Silva, on the other hand, had a little more success maintaining space at times and showed much more urgency in those moments, especially down the stretch, where he sat Puelles down and pulled out the win.

Watching these two fights consecutively as a teaching exercise would be a good way to show young fighters how you need to approach bouts where we’re frequently stuck in grappling exchanges, but rarely in danger. Silva handled it considerably better and, as a result, left San Antonio with a win in hand.

DONCHENKO DOMINATES, CLAIMS TUF TOURNAMENT WIN

Daniil Donchenko claimed the Ultimate Fighter Season 33 welterweight tournament finale with a first-round stoppage win over Vancouver-based Brazilian Rodrigo Sezinando.

The 24-year-old Ukrainian busted up his Team Cormier teammate with a lead elbow early in the fight, continuing to utilize a weapon he had success with inside the house, especially in his semifinal win over Matt Dixon. He continued to batter Sezinando at every opportunity, and wisely pressed forward when the two restarted coming off a momentary pause due to an accidental low blow. With Sezinando moving backwards along the fence, Donchenko uncorked heavy blows that forced him to cover up and ultimately felled him, bringing about the stoppage.

At a time when judges are rightfully focusing more on damage, you have to applaud Donchenko’s approach when it comes to throwing elbows in tight and looking to slice up his opponents. Not only does it frequently produce the kind of impact and visuals that clearly put him ahead on the scorecards, but it also gets his opponents worried about the cuts and blood streaming down their faces.

We frequently see competitors take ideas from other fights and others having success, and it will be interesting to see if more people start to make greater use of the lead elbows, given the way that Donchenko used them here to great success.

OCTAGON ODDS & ENDS

David Martinez registered a unanimous decision win over Rob Font in the co-main event, making the most of his short-notice opportunity against the ranked veteran. A member of the DWCS Class of ’24, he went from opening the main card against Quang Le to outworking a Top-10 fixture in just his second UFC appearance.

Rafa Garcia and Jared Gordon engaged in a gritty slugfest late in Saturday’s fight card, spending the first two rounds trading blows in tight before Garcia scored the finish midway through the third frame. The right hand Garcia landed to floor Gordon was clean, and he did a tremendous job sealing the deal with hammerfists and elbows to secure his second straight win.

For the second time in three fights, Kelvin Gastelum registered a unanimous decision win in a competitive bout where he missed weight by a significant amount. Last summer in Saudi Arabia, the former Ultimate Fighter winner’s fight with Daniel Rodriguez was shifted to middleweight at the 11th hour due to Gastelum struggling to make the welterweight limit, and on Friday, he missed weight for his middleweight contest with Dustin Stoltzfus by five pounds.

It’s impossible to say how the added weight — and not draining himself in an effort to make the 186-pound limit — impacted his ability to deal with the heavy shots coming back his way, as well as his hustling gas tank. This has been an issue for Gastelum throughout his career, across two divisions, and the fact that it continues to happen is both shocking and disappointingly unsurprising at the same time.

Alexander Hernandez added to his winning streak on Saturday, thrilling his hometown fans with a second-round stoppage victory over Diego Ferreira. Hernandez has now earned two wins in the last month, four wins in the last 12 months, and five straight when competing in the 155-pound weight class. With each successive win, it makes his insistence on fighting at featherweight not that long ago— where he went 0-3 — even more confusing.

Tremendous debut win for Santiago Luna, who had to navigate early rough waters in order to secure a stoppage win over Quang Le in his promotional debut. The 21-year-old newcomer ate a couple of big shots from Le straight away and seemed like he was in real trouble, only for Luna to get his wits about him and go on the offensive, hurting, dropping, and finishing Le just after the midway point of the opening frame.

Quality scrap from Jesus Aguilar and Luis Gurule in the middle of Saturday’s prelims, as the DWCS graduates got after it for 15 minutes, with Aguilar coming out ahead. The Mexican fighter — now 4-2 in the UFC with his losses coming against Tatsuro Taira and unbeaten Brazilian Rafael Estevam — throws heavy leather from start to finish, while Gurule is tough with some power of his own, and they paired off to deliver an enjoyable three-round battle that should earn them a few more eyeballs next time out.

Impressive debut effort from Alden Coria, who picked up a third-round finish of Alessandro Costa. The Houston native fought quality competition on the regional circuit and looked like a seasoned vet throughout his first appearance, swarming and dispatching Costa early in the final round as soon as he saw the Brazilian was ready to be shown an exit.

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