Featherweights Diego Lopes, Jean Silva ready for Noche UFC headliner

3 months ago 12

Will Jean Silva be barking his way to a sixth consecutive UFC victory, or will Diego Lopes send him to the doghouse?

The wild featherweight who often actually barks at his opponents before, during and after his fights, will look to make his case to jump to the front of the line in the division when he takes on Lopes in the main event of Noche UFC on Saturday at San Antonio’s Frost Bank Center.

Besides his continued ascension in the division, Silva will be motivated to get his Fighting Nerds team back in the win column after a rough showing this past weekend at UFC Paris that saw both Caio Borralho and Mauricio Ruffy get their winning streaks snapped.

Silva debuted in the 145-pound rankings earlier this year after improving to 5-0 in the UFC with a submission win over Bryce Mitchell in April. The 28-year-old from Brazil overpowered Mitchell on the feet and on the ground and put him out with a ninja choke at UFC 314 to earn his third consecutive performance bonus.

All five of Silva’s UFC wins have been via stoppage. He earned a UFC contract with a decision win over a 21-year-old Kevin Vallejos two years ago on the Contender Series then railed off consecutive KO/TKO wins against Westin Wilson, Charles Jourdain, Drew Dober and Melsik Baghdasaryan before his showdown with Mitchell.

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Featherweight contenders Diego Lopes and Jean Silva meet in the main event of Noche UFC. Watch UFC Fight Night action on Saturday, Sept. 13 on Sportsnet 360 and Sportsnet+ with coverage beginning at 4 p.m. ET / 1 p.m. PT.

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Silva diversifies his striking attacks and possesses crushing chokes, while successfully defending 86 per cent of the takedown attempts against him. A physical force within the weight class, he even outmuscled veteran lightweight Dober in their 155-pound matchup 14 months ago. Silva will be at a height and reach disadvantage at Noche UFC.

Lopes also possesses knockout power in his hands and is a jiu-jitsu black belt who can scramble well if the bout hits the mat. His boxing-first style plus his ability, or inability, to effectively cut off the cage has been apparent in his recent outings, though. Against Silva, he’d be best served dictating the pace and won’t want to be backed up against the cage.

The 30-year-old was picked apart for five rounds by Alexander Volkanovski in their UFC 314 vacant title fight but before that, the Brazilian who lives and trains out of Mexico was riding his own five-fight streak in the UFC with stoppages of Sodiq Yusuff, Pat Sabatini and Gavin Tucker, plus decisions over Dan Ige and Brian Ortega.

The recent title challenger enters the weekend as the No. 2 contender in the division behind titleholder Volkanovski and No. 1-ranked contender Movsar Evloev, the only two fighters to defeat Lopes in the UFC to date.

Silva is the No. 10 contender in the division. He began his professional career in 2016 and went 3-2 over his first year and a half but has since rattled off 13 consecutive wins overall with all but one coming inside the distance.

Volkanovski does not have his next opponent lined up.

Lopes would need to upset Silva and earn at least one more impressive win in order to be considered for a rematch with Volk, however, Silva would have a decent argument that he’s worthy of title shot consideration if he does to Lopes what he has done to his other UFC opponents.

Lerone Murphy is the leading contender to get the next title shot after his incredible spinning elbow knockout of Aaron Pico at UFC 319 in August.

In theory, Evloev should’ve already gotten a title shot but he is recovering from an injury that forced him out of a scheduled matchup with Pico in July.

Former bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling has moved into the top five at featherweight after his recent win over Brian Ortega, which adds another layer of intrigue to the post-Ilia Topuria featherweight era.

Saturday’s event will mark the third annual Noche UFC event, which is meant to commemorate Mexico’s independence.

This card was originally scheduled as UFC 320 and was set to take place at Arena Guadalajara in Guadalajara, Mexico. However, due to construction delays with that venue, the event was moved to San Antonio and changed to a Fight Night instead.

Also on the main card, Mexico’s David Martinez will face bantamweight stalwart Rob Font in the co-main event; Jared Gordon will look to extend his hot streak against fellow lightweight Rafa Garcia; Kelvin Gastelum aims to return to the win column when he takes on Dustin Stoltzfus.

The prelims feature the welterweight final from The Ultimate Fighter 33 that was rescheduled from UFC 319. Rodrigo Sezinando meets Daniil Donchenko in that TUF 33 tournament championship to kick off a preliminary card headlined by veteran lightweights Diego Ferreira and Alexander Hernandez, and has top-five strawweights Tatiana Suarez and Amanda Lemos.

Projected bout order for Noche UFC below (subject to change):

MAIN CARD

— Diego Lopes vs. Jean Silva

— Rob Font vs. David Martinez

— Rafa Garcia vs. Jared Gordon

— Kelvin Gastelum vs. Dustin Stoltzfus

— Santiago Luna vs. Quang Le

PRELIMINARY CARD

— Alexander Hernandez vs. Diego Ferreira

— Jose Medina vs. Dusko Todorovic

— Claudio Puelles vs. Joaquim Silva

— Tatiana Suarez vs. Amanda Lemos