Diego Lopes starred in a triumphant return on Saturday, knocking out Jean Silva in the featherweight main event at UFC Fight Night in San Antonio. Lopes (27-7), who was coming off a loss in April, was close to finishing the fight early, securing the full mount midway through the first round and bleeding Silva with elbow strikes, also seeking to submit him with his grappling skills. Silva resisted for almost two minutes in a bad position, and then took control of the stand-up fight in the second round, but Lopes connected with a spinning elbow to knock Silva down and land almost two dozen strikes before referee Mike Beltran intervened at 4:48. Lopes’ celebration was interrupted when Silva, with blood running down his face, got up and pushed his opponent.
For Silva (16-3), the loss ends a 13-fight winning streak dating back to 2018. It’s also the most recent in a string of high-profile defeats for his fighting team, Fighting Nerds. Silva entered the fight with a 5-0 UFC record with all finishes, the longest active finishing streak in the Octagon. He was the second fighter at 155 pounds and under to start a UFC career with five consecutive finishes, after women’s bantamweight Ronda Rousey. Previously, in a high-ranking strawweight bout, Tatiana Suarez dominated Amanda Lemos for much of the fight, but had to persevere through a late attack from Lemos to get a unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28). Suarez (11-1), who is ranked number 5 in the 115-pound top 10, secured takedowns in all three rounds and accumulated 9 minutes and 34 seconds of control time in the 15-minute fight. The victory put Suarez back on the right track, as he had suffered his first professional defeat against then-champion Zhang Weili in February. Lemos (15-5-1), ranked number four, only connected five significant strikes in each of the first two rounds, but remained active in the final minute of the third, putting Suarez on the defensive. But it was too little, too late for Lemos, who has lost two of his last three fights. The event was the third one labeled as “UFC Fight Night”, held in the last three Septembers to commemorate Mexico’s Independence Day. This year’s Fight Night was scheduled to be the first one held in Mexico, but the venue was changed due to construction delays of a new arena in Guadalajara. The card was also originally scheduled to be a numbered pay-per-view event, but ended up as a less prominent UFC Fight Night.This game has levels: your level and the high level. I am at the high level. I tried it tonight.
Diego Lopes
