Diego Lopes is still smiling despite coming up short in his second bid at becoming featherweight champion following a lopsided loss to Alexander Volkanovski in the UFC 325 main event.
Following the fight, Lopes was transported to a local hospital in Sydney for treatment where his team revealed “looks like we broke both feet” as a result of his five-round battle with Volkanovski. While it’s not totally clear when the injuries happened, there was a moment late in the fight when Lopes threw a kick and
noticeably limped afterwards.
He also limped backstage after leaving the octagon and it appears Lopes will likely need some time to recover from his injuries sustained in the fight.
“Some nights you’re at the afterparty, some nights you’re at the ER,” Lopes’ manager Jason House wrote on Instagram. “But every morning I give thanks for the opportunity to live this live with my best friends.”
Lopes earned a second crack at Volkanovski after scoring a stunning spinning back elbow knockout over Jean Silva this past September. The rematch happened just 10 months after Volkanovski defeated Lopes in their first encounter.
Not much changed in the second fight except Volkanovski appeared even more prepared to deal with Lopes’ size and strength during the 25-minute fight. Outside of a late flash knockdown that only briefly stunned Volkanovski, Lopes just couldn’t mount much offense to hurt the featherweight champion.
Again and again, Volkanovski used superior footwork and movement to keep Lopes guessing and anytime he got aggressive, the Australian made him pay with effective speed and accurate counter strikes.
In the end, Volkanovski secured a unanimous decision win with the scorecards reading 50-45, 49-46 and 49-46 as he retained his title and likely stops Lopes from getting another shot at the belt so long as he’s champion.
