Diego Lopes gives Movsar Evloev all he can handle in promotional debut at UFC 288, but loses decision

The Ultimate Fighting Championship returned to us tonight, May 6, 2023, for UFC 288, going down live from the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.

Headlining the event is the return of former UFC flyweight & bantamweight champion Henry Cejudo (16-2), who makes his first appearance in three years in attempt to reclaim his throne against current champion Aljamain Sterling (22-3).

Co-headlining the event is a five-round welterweight affair between no. 4 ranked Belal Muhammad (22-3, 1 NC) and no. 5 ranked former title challenger Gilbert Burns (22-5).

Our second bout on the main card tonight came at 145 lbs between former M-1 Global bantamweight champion Movsar Evloev (16-0) and former LUX featherweight champion Diego Lopes (20-5).

Evloev was initially slated to face Bryce Mitchell tonight; however, Mitchell withdrew himself from the contest in the days leading up and was replaced by Lopes.

Continue reading to see how this featherweight bout went down:

Official Result: Movsar Evloev def. Diego Lopes via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)

Lopes cracks Evloev with a left hand that stuns him early on. Evloev immediately pursues him in attempt for a takedown, but is unsuccessful. Evloev secures an ankle pick takedown not long thereafter and puts Lopes on his back, where he was put in a world of danger.

Lopes wraps up one of Evloev’s arms and comes incredibly close to finishing the fight midway through the opening round, and he had a triangle choke fully locked in when the buzzer sounded.

The second round showcases a much different story; Evloev lands some nice right hands early on, and he out-wrestles Lopes through much of it.

Evloev had a couple submission scares in the third and final round as well, as Lopes is able to lock up a kimura while Evloev was on top, and he eventually sweeps him with it. He also came quite close to finishing the fight in the final seconds with a kneebar.

Mosvar Evloev was nearly beat tonight, and now at 17-0, that shows how truly skilled debutante Diego Lopes is.

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Brady Ordway

I became a fan of combat sports when I was 12 years old. I was scrolling through the channels and landed upon Versus, where WEC was televised. Urijah Faber fought Jens Pulver for the second time that night. That's the first fight I ever saw, and I was immediately hooked. So eventually, I began covering the sport in the fourth quarter of 2018, and have since started writing about animals as well. If you'd like to see those pieces, be sure to check out learnaboutnature.com!

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