Diego Lopes won’t let critics bother him ahead of his second shot at the UFC featherweight championship against Alexander Volkanovski at Saturday’s UFC 325 in Sydney, Australia.
Undefeated featherweight contenders Movsar Evloev and Lerone Murphy were hoping to be the ones to face Volkanovski next, but Lopes was awarded with a title shot after knocking out Jean Silva in September, rebounding from a decision loss to Volkanovski five months before.
“No one is going to say ‘no’ to a title fight, right?”
Lopes told MMA Fighting. “People are going to criticize any decision the UFC makes. If the UFC gave the fight to Movsar Evloev, some people would criticize it saying, ‘Oh, but the guy hasn’t fought in a year.’ If they gave it to Lerone Murphy, another group would criticize it too saying, ‘How are you going to give a title shot to a guy who just beat someone who wasn’t even in the UFC?’ They gave me the fight and people are criticizing it. People are never going to be happy with anything, you know? There’s always going to be someone trying to criticize.”
Evloev, who holds a win over Lopes in the UFC, hasn’t fought since defeating Aljamain Sterling via decision in December 2024. Murphy fought twice in 2025, beating Josh Emmett via decision before flooring Aaron Pico with a spinning back elbow in August.
“Of course, Movsar deserves the opportunity. Of course, Lerone deserves his opportunity,’ Lopes said. “They’re both undefeated, and I’ve said that as well. I asked to fight them before the fight with Jean, I don’t know why it never happened. For me, it really doesn’t bother me. I just do my job. My idea was to win the fight in a decisive way, by knockout or submission or by completely dominating all five rounds, and to put my name on the table for a title shot. And that’s exactly what I did. I ended up winning the fight decisively, put my name back on the table and the UFC pulled the card. ‘You go.’ That doesn’t bother me. If people want to be angry, if they want to criticize, go complain to the UFC, not to me for accepting a fight [laughs].”
Should Lopes win at UFC 325, there’s a good chance the promotion books a rubber match for later this year. There’s also a chance “The Great” walks away from the sport and Lopes faces a fresh opponent in his first title defense, too.
“[Volkanovski] has been saying he’s not going to retire, that he wants to have a few more fights, but he’s also said it depends on how this fight goes,” Lopes said. “His plan is to go in there, make the fight look easy and come out without any damage, but I think it’s a bit hard for him to come out of a fight with me without taking any damage. I really don’t think that’s going to happen. But I don’t know, man. I honestly don’t know what his next step will be after this fight. My goal is to win the belt. If the UFC wants us to have another fight, I’ll have another fight. If he decides to retire, then it’ll be up to the UFC to see who the next opponent is.”
Lopes’ main goal is to capture the UFC belt in Sydney, and being the one to end Volkanovski’s career is not something he’s too worried about.
“It doesn’t make any difference to me, honestly,” Lopes said. “The only thing I hope is that we can put on a much tougher fight than the first one, a much more exciting fight than the first one. That I can walk away with the belt and that, if he decides to retire, at least he can have a retirement with a fight that was a war, one that people can remember him by saying ‘his last fight was a war against Diego.’ That’s the only thing I hope for, but my goal is to win the belt.”
