It took a little while for Diego Lopes to find his rhythm, but when he did, he bit down on his mouthpiece and put Steve Garcia to sleep Sunday at UFC Freedom 250.
The featherweights were the opening matchup on the seven-fight card that took place on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C.
After a slight delay to the start of the card due to inclement nearby weather, the 145-pound contenders made their walk to the cage to kick off the action.
The first round played out at a tentative pace with Garcia finding success with his jab, but Lopes opened up in the second round and rocked Garcia with a left hook, eventually landing a series of heavy blows that knocked Garcia unconscious.
“This is unbelievable!” an elated Lopes said during his post-fight interview when asked about winning in such a unique setting.
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The 31-year-old Brazilian, who now lives and trains out of Mexico, quickly became both a fan favourite as well as a fave of the top UFC brass.
Lopes has earned many opportunities since joining the UFC in 2023, including a questionable second title shot against reigning titleholder Alexander Volkanovski within a year of losing a one-sided championship bout to the Aussie the year prior.
In fact, UFC Freedom 250 was the third specialty event in which Lopes has competed within the past couple years. Lopes was victorious both at the milestone UFC 300 and on the UFC 306 main card that took place at the unique Sphere venue in 2024.
At Saturday’s official weigh-in, the organization even chose Lopes to serve as the official backup option for the lightweight main event should anything prevent either Ilia Topuria or Justin Gaethje from competing Sunday, which speaks to how highly the organization views his star power.
Lopes snapped a lengthy winning streak Garcia had been enjoying.
Garcia began his UFC tenure going just 1-2 before running off seven consecutive wins over the past four years, including in his first UFC Fight Night main event when he TKO’d David Onama seven months ago. Garcia also earned stoppages of Melquizael Costa, Chase Hooper, and Kyle Nelson, plus a decision over Calvin Kattar, during his win streak.
The 34-year-old from New Mexico had risen to being the No. 9-ranked contender at 145 pounds thanks to his streak, while Lopes has been steady in the top three of the division for the past few years, with champ Alexander Volkanovski and undefeated No. 1 contender Movsar Evloev the only fighters ranked above him.
Volkanovski and Evloev also happen to be the only fighters to defeat Lopes at the UFC level.
Lopes has found himself in an unofficial No Man’s Land at featherweight after his two lopsided unanimous decision losses to Volkanovski within the past 14 months — one at UFC 314 last April and another at UFC 325 just 4.5 months ago.
Those two 25-minute decisions sandwiched a thrilling TKO victory over Jean Silva last September in one of the most exciting fights of 2025, and after a win like the one Lopes provided at the White House, there is a decent chance he will fight for a UFC belt again at some point in the future.
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