Brian Ortega out, Dan Ige steps in to fight Diego Lopes at UFC 303

A major change has happened to UFC 303 as the co-main event as Brian Ortega is out of his fight against Diego Lopes and Dan Ige has stepped up on short notice.

Ortega vs Lopes was supposed to take place at featherweight but on Friday the fight was moved to lightweight. Now, sources confirmed to BJPENN that Ortega is out of the fight and Ige has stepped up on short notice.

(via Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC)

Dan Ige (18-7) is coming off a first-round knockout win over Andre Fili back in February. The victory got the Hawaiian back in the win column after a loss to Bryce Mitchell. Ige is 10-6 in the UFC and holds notable wins over Edson Barboza, Damon Jackson, and Nate Landwehr among others.

Ige was scheduled to fight Chepe Mariscal on July 20.

Diego Lopes (24-6) is on a three-fight winning streak and is coming off a KO win over Sodiq Yusuff in the first round at UFC 300. Before that, he scored a KO win over Pat Sabatini and a submission win over Gavin Tucker.

Lopes lost his UFC debut by decision to Movsar Evloev in a fight he took on short notice.

The new UFC 303 main card lineup looks as follows:

UFC 303 MAIN CARD (Pay-per-view, 10 p.m. ET)

Alex Pereira (204.5) vs. Jiri Prochazka (204.5) –

Dan Ige (165) vs. Diego Lopes (155) –

Anthony Smith (206) vs. Roman Dolidze (205) –

Mayra Bueno Silva (136) vs. Macy Chiasson (135.5) –

Ian Machado Garry (170) vs. Michael Page (171) –

What do you think of the late change to the UFC 303 co-main event?