Diego Lopes shares his predictions for UFC 306 main card fights, including his own against Brian 'T-City' Ortega
12/09/2024 20:14
Popular featherweight contender Diego Lopes returns to action this weekend on the main card of UFC 306, with the 25-6 Brazilian set to finally square off with former title challenger Brian Ortega at the second time of asking.
Ahead of the enormous PPV at The Sphere in Las Vegas on Saturday, the stylish finisher has offered fans a sneak peek at who he's predicting to join him in the winner's circle at this astonishing new arena.
Diego Lopes shares his official predictions for final six UFC 306 fights
After suffering a razor-close decision loss to Movsar Evloev in his UFC debut, Diego Lopes has gone from strength to strength – rattling off four impressive wins in a row, including a KO of Sodiq Yusuff and a UD win over Dan Ige already in 2024.
Lopes returns to action this weekend on the Mexican-themed Noche UFC card, and it's safe to say that the 29-year-old is expecting a complete shut-out from those fighters celebrating Independence Day weekend with him in Las Vegas.
"The first one is Irene [Aldana], I think Irena has a chance to win by knockout," Lopes stated, as he made his predictions via Blockasset's BlockPicks with the help of 14-4 UFC flyweight Alessandro Costa: "I think the same thing too, Irena by KO."
"The second one is the fight between Ronaldo [Rodriguez] and Ode [Osbourne], I think that Luis Ronaldo wins but by submission," predicted Lopes, with Costa also siding with the Mexican fighter, albeit instead picking that the fight will end via TKO.
"On the third fight, this one is good – Daniel Zellhuber and Esteban Ribovics – I think Zellhuber wins by decision.
Costa was able to offer some insight into this bout: "His last fight had good striking selection, good distance [management] and he knew how to control the fight, Esteban as well, I know him and he's also a very aggressive athlete – I think it's a fight that Zellhuber will win by decision."
Next up was the main man himself, with Lopes predicting that he will finish Brian Ortega inside the distance via KO: "The next one is mine, Diego by knockout. But I like that people aren't believing [in me], that's good."
Out of Lopes' 25 wins as a professional MMA athlete, 10 of those have come via KO/TKO, six of which came inside the very first round – Ortega has just three losses on his record, two via KO/TKO although one of those was the shoulder injury to Yair Rodriguez in 2022.
Onto the next bout and given how Lopes will be making two walkouts on Saturday night, once for his fight and once for teammate Alexa Grasso, it's no surprise that the Brazilian picked the flyweight champion to retain her title.
"The co-main event, I believe that Alexa [will win] of course, I think that this time she'll also win by submission," with Costa agreeing that after watching Grasso in training, a submission win is the most likely outcome.
"In the main event, which will be O'Malley vs Merab, it's a very tough fight [to call]," pondered the featherweight contender, with the title fight topping the UFC 306 bill being near-even just a few days out.
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"A lot of things can happen, but I think from what we have seen how Merab sometimes gets hit a lot and how O'Malley has the precision, I think O'Malley wins by KO.
"All picks are in O'Malley, Alexa, me, Zellhuber, Luis Ronaldo, and Irena- those are my picks for the night. We know the qualities of each one that we chose, nothing more than waiting for the night – hope our picks are correct."
UFC 306, aka Noche UFC, goes down Saturday, September 14 live from The Sphere.
