Diego Lopes responds to Ilia Topuria’s title shot callout: “If he’s saying my name…”

UFC featherweight contender Diego Lopes knows what’s potentially on the line this weekend ahead of the biggest fight of his career.

Lopes will face former UFC featherweight title challenger Brian Ortega at UFC 306 at the Las Vegas Sphere. This is the toughest on-paper test of Lopes’s career and could potentially earn him a title shot with a win.

Lopes’s surge into the UFC rankings, just a handful of fights into his UFC tenure, is unprecedented. After losing his short-notice promotional debut at UFC 288, he’s won four consecutive fights.

Lopes is a UFC fan favorite and could potentially challenge for a title one day. In an interview, UFC featherweight champion Ilia Topuria recently endorsed a potential title clash with Lopes.

Diego Lopes responds to Ilia Topuria’s title talk

In a recent interview with CBS Sports‘s Shakiel Mahjouri, Lopes responded to Topuria.

“It’s great that he actually mentioned this because if he’s saying my name, it is for a reason,” Lopes said. “You’re telling me a champion that goes out there and mentions the number twelve guy in the rankings…if he literally mentions my name, to be the next potential title contender. That means he’s aware and he’s seen what I’m doing…

“That just gives me more motivation to go out there, do my job, get this win. So that way my name is on the table to be the next title contender.”

Topuria will face former UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway in the UFC 308 main event. He won the title by finishing Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 298 earlier this year.

A win over Ortega will cement Lopes as a key part of the featherweight title picture. He could potentially face the Topuria vs. Holloway winner with an impressive performance at UFC 306.

Lopes is firmly on Topuria’s radar. The coming weeks will play a key role in what the UFC featherweight title conversation looks like heading into 2025.