Outside Source
Lopes opened UFC Freedom 250 against Steve Garcia (19-6) at the White House on Sunday. While the opening round was closely contested, Lopes believes he might have been behind on the scorecards. However, Lopes dropped Garcia with a massive left hand midway through Round 2 before finishing him with ground-and-pound.
Lopes subsequently revealed that he received the fight-ending advice from UFC flyweight Alessandro Costa, who was in his corner. Costa told Lopes to step back when Garcia landed on him the first time. Costa then told Lopes to stand ground on the second connection and counter with a three-punch combination. Lopes paid heed to Costa’s advice and dropped Garcia with the third punch of his combination.
“The whole credit I give to my brother, Alessandro,” Lopes said in a post-fight interview with the UFC. “He told me, ‘Hey, he connects you, you step back, the second time you stay and hit him with three punches.’ When I hit him, I missed the first one, I missed the second one, I connected with No. 3. All thanks to Allesandro. He did a great job in the corner.”
Costa is currently on a two-fight finishing streak. “Nono” was helping Lopes in camp when he received the call for a short-notice fight against Matt Schnell. Costa made a turnaround of two months to knock Schnell out last weekend. Costa had also hoped that his momentum would carry over to Lopes for the White House fight.
Moving on Up
Lopes (28-8) is now eyeing a move up to lightweight, even if temporary, to let his body recover. While Lopes will stay put at featherweight if the UFC wants him to, the Brazilian admits that he will have to compromise on the food that he loves.
“I just need to talk with the UFC,” Lopes said. “I want to move to 155 [pounds] for a couple of fights. To fulfill my body. But if the UFC want me to stay at 145, I need to be more disciplined with my diet again. I need to stay. But I love food. I want to move to 155… I’m healthy, I have no injuries, I hope the UFC can book another fight for me soon. If it is at 155, I’m going to prove I can fight at that weight class.”
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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