Ortega vs. Lopes Now to be Fought at Lightweight

(via MMA-Core)

The scheduled bout between featherweight contenders Brian Ortega and Diego Lopes will now take place at lightweight due to some alleged weight cutting issues on the side of Ortega.

UFC play-by-play announcer, Jon Anik gave his two cents on the situation during the weigh in show. Anik noted prior to the official weigh ins that the reason for the change was unconfirmed.

“In terms of why this is happening, no on the ground context for you herem” Anik said. “But my informed speculation from our fighter meeting, and [Daniel Cormier] can speak to this, probably on the Ortega side. He did offer up that the biggest challenge was going to be weight-related.”

This makes a lot of sense, since this fight was booked two weeks ago, and Ortega already cuts a lot of weight to get to the 146 lbs. featherweight limit. Lopes, who also cuts a lot of weight, did not seem to have the same issues that Ortega experienced.

This fight as a whole will absolutely benefit both fighters in the end. Having both these fighters cut ten more pounds would certainly deplete both fighters, regardless if neither of them have issues with making weight.

With this fight occurring two weeks after it was booked, both fighters would have to shed a considerable amount of weight in such a short amount of time. This allows the fighters some leniency so they can fight as close to their best as this short notice fight will allow.

This fight does have significant implications for the featherweight title picture as well. Ortega is currently ranked third in the division and is coming off of a main event win against Yair Rodriguez via third round submission. This was even more significant given the fact that Ortega had previously lost to Rodriguez where he suffered a shoulder injury that caused the stoppage.

Lopes, ranked 14th, has been virtually untouchable in the UFC. He is most recently coming off a first round TKO against division mainstay, Sodiq Yusuff. His lone loss in the UFC was against current undefeated featherweight prospect, Movsar Evloev, a fight where he showed his incredible guard, almost submitting Evloev several times off of his back.

These two match up incredibly well based on their incredible Jiu Jitsu, as well as their propensity to bring the fight to their opponents. UFC 303 occurs on Saturday, June 29th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The Main card starts at 10p.m. EST.