Diego Lopes made a thrilling bounce-back Saturday, knocking out the red-hot Jean Silva in an all-action featherweight main event at Noche UFC in San Antonio.
Lopes (27-7), who was coming off a failed bid for the division’s championship in April, was in prime position to end the fight early, seizing full mount midway through Round 1 and bloodying Silva with elbow strikes while also looking to utilize his grappling skills to get a submission. But Silva persevered through nearly two minutes in bad position.
Silva then took control of the standup fight in Round 2, before Lopes connected with a spinning elbow to drop Silva and pounce with nearly two dozen unanswered punches before referee Mike Beltran jumped in at 4:48.
The fighting was not quite finished, though, as Lopes’ celebration of his TKO was interrupted when Silva, with blood streaming down his face and still wobbly, got up and gave his opponent a shove.
“This game has levels: his level and high level,” said Lopes, who had won five in a row before the streak was halted by Alexander Volkanovski in the spring. “I’m standing at high level. I proved it tonight.”
For Silva (16-3), the defeat ends a 13-fight winning streak dating to 2018. It also is the latest in a string of high-profile losses for his celebrated fight team, the Fighting Nerds. The Brazilian team, known for its gimmick of wearing taped-together eyeglasses in interviews after fights, has seen much success in recent years, producing several contenders. But in addition to this Silva defeat, last week’s UFC event saw fighters from the team lose the main event (Caio Borralho) and the co-main (Mauricio Ruffy).
Silva came into the fight 5-0 in the UFC with all finishes, which was the longest active finish streak in the Octagon. He was the second fighter at 155 pounds and under to open a UFC career with five straight finishes, after women’s bantamweight Ronda Rousey.
Earlier, in a clash of highly ranked strawweights, Tatiana Suarez dominated Amanda Lemos for much of the fight but had to persevere through a late Lemos rally to eke out a unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28).
Suarez (11-1), who is No. 5 in ESPN’s 115-pound top 10, scored takedowns in all three rounds and amassed 9 minutes, 34 seconds of control time in the 15-minute fight. The win got Suarez back on track, as she had suffered her first career loss to then-champ Zhang Weili in February. Suarez positioned herself for another title shot, with Zhang having moved on to flyweight and Virna Jandiroba and Mackenzie Dern scheduled to vie for the vacant title on Oct. 21.
The fourth-ranked Lemos (15-5-1) landed just five significant strikes in each of the first two rounds but got busy in the final minute of the third round, putting Suarez on retreat. But it was too little, too late for Lemos, who has lost two of her past three fights.
The event was the third labeled Noche UFC, held the past three Septembers to commemorate Mexican Independence Day. This year’s Noche UFC was scheduled to be the first held in Mexico, but the locale was shifted because of delays in construction of a new arena in Guadalajara. The card also was originally slated to be a numbered pay-per-view, but it ended up as a less prominent UFC Fight Night.