Sodiq Yusuff vs Diego Lopes added to UFC 300 lineup
UFC 300 is shaping up to be the most anticipated event of the year with all sorts of exciting bouts from the bottom to top of the lineup.
UFC 300 is to go down on April 13, 2024, live from the T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada.
The most recent bouts added to the lineup come in the women’s bantamweight division between former UFC bantamweight champion Holly Holm and former two-time PFL lightweight champion Kayla Harrison, and the newest addition to the card being a featherweight booking between no. 12 ranked Sodiq Yusuff and Diego Lopes.
Yusuff came into the bout having gone 6-2 thus far into his eight-fight promotional tenure, Lopes having gone 2-1 through his first three bouts.
Sodiq Yusuff came to the UFC in December of 2018, rattling off four-straight victories in 13 months over the likes of Suman Mokhtarian (TKO), Sheymon Moraes (UD), Gabriel Benitez (KO), and Andre Fili (UD). Yusuff would spend 14 months outside of the cage following his fourth promotional victory, eventually coming back to a defeat handed to him by no. 6 ranked Arnold Allen (UD).
Yusuff then won his next two-straight over Alex Caceres (UD) and Don Shainis (guillotine choke), before losing his most recent outing to no. 11 ranked Edson Barboza (UD), a fight he was looking great in early on, and a fight many thought should have been stopped in the opening round.
Nonetheless, Yusuff is aiming to get back to his winning ways with a victory over Lopes this spring.
Diego Lopes made his UFC debut in May of last year, filling in for Bryce Mitchell to take on no. 5 ranked Movsar Evloev on short notice. No one in their right mind gave Lopes a chance in this fight, but man did he prove us all wrong.
Now, he wasn’t the victor by time the contest ended, but he did give the 18-0 former M-1 Challenge champion a tougher fight than anyone ever had previous. Lopes got Evloev stuck in four incredibly deep submission attempts, many of us thinking it was only a matter of time until the Russian stud lost his 0.
Even though he couldn’t secure the submission, many of us believed he deserved to be the winner of that fight.
Since then, however Lopes has run straight through Gavin Tucker (triangle armbar) and Pat Sabatini (KO) in August and November of last year respectively. Tucker is a BJJ black belt and had never been submitted in his MMA career prior, and Sabatini had gone 5-1 through his first six promotional bouts going in.
Now Lopes gets a legitimate chance to climb into the top 15 rankings at 29 years of age.
UFC 300 lineup:
Main Card
- Main Event: To-be-determined
- Co-Main Event: To-be-determined
- Women’s Strawweight Championship: Weili Zhang (24-3) vs Yan Xiaonan (17-3)
- Lightweight BMF Championship: Justin Gaethje (25-4) vs Max Holloway (25-7)
- Lightweight No. 1 Contender: Charles Oliveira (34-9) vs Arman Tsarukyan (21-3)
Preliminary Card
- Light-Heavyweight: Jiri Prochazka (29-4-1) vs Aleksandar Rakic (14-3)
- Women’s Bantamweight: Kayla Harrison (16-1) vs Holly Holm (15-6)
- Bantamweight: Deiveson Figueiredo (22-3-1) vs Cody Garbrandt (14-5)
- Featherweight: Calvin Kattar (23-7) vs Aljamain Sterling (23-4)
Early Preliminary Card
- Lightweight: Jim Miller (37-17) vs Bobby Green (31-15-1)
- Featherweight: Sodiq Yusuff (13-3) vs Diego Lopes (23-6)
- Middleweight: Bo Nickal (5-0) vs Cody Brundage (10-5)
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