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This weekend, during UFC 332, it was announced that December\u2019s UFC 335 would be headlined by Charles Oliveira vs. Diego Lopes for Oliveira\u2019s BMF title. This will be Lopes\u2019 lightweight debut with the promotion, having contended for the featherweight title on two occasions.<\/p>\n
Lopes talked to Yahoo Sports<\/em> about his move to 155 lbs and what fights were on the table for him once he left the featherweight division.<\/p>\n The Mexico-based Brazilian admitted that he had nowhere to go at featherweight, having lost twice to champion Alexander Volkanovski. And despite beating Steve Garcia at the UFC\u2019s White House event in July, as a featherweight, Lopes still felt it was time to move up.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t have a lot of options at 145 now and I wanted to make the move for fun fights at 155,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The \u2018fun fight\u2019 Lopes was first offered, according to him, was with Dan Hooker in the main event of UFC Paris in September. I\u2019m sure that would have been fun for Lopes, at least. That fight with Hooker, who is currently marred in a losing streak, went away after UFC cherry-picked Salahdine Parnasse from MVP MMA. Parnasse would go onto demolish Hooker at the Accor Arena.<\/p>\n After that, Lopes said, the offer to fight a Brazilian legend came in.<\/p>\n \u201cThey said Charles Oliveira. If it\u2019s not possible, maybe [Benoit Saint Denis] in New York. So UFC did the fight with Oliveira, and I\u2019m happy with this fight.\u201d<\/p>\n Future Hall of Famer Oliveira won the BMF belt with a win over Max Holloway in March. He won that belt in decidedly un-BMF-like fashion, though, grounding Holloway and taking away the chance of a fun rock \u2018em sock \u2018em brawl.<\/p>\n Interestingly, this will be Oliveira\u2019s first ever UFC fight against a fellow Brazilian. The last time the 37 UFC fight veteran faced a countryman was in 2010. Lopes doesn\u2019t have a similar record. He won a memorable fight over Jean Silva in 2025 and also dropped a bout to Joanderson Brito on Contender Series.<\/p>\n Lopes said that this fight with Oliveira doesn\u2019t mean he\u2019ll never go back down to 145 lbs. I\u2019m sure if Volkanovski loses to Movsar Evloev, he\u2019ll find some motivation to try and get back in that title picture.<\/p>\n