UFC 303 will go down as one of the most logistically chaotic cards in the promotion’s history, with the disarray no more apparent than Diego Lopes beating a man who fought on roughly four hours’ notice.
The rising featherweight star defeated last-minute opponent Dan Ige by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28) on Saturday, the highlight of a co-main event that had to be reworked four different times.
Lopes took a decisive lead with a strong first and second round, but Ige put in a valiant effort in the third round, landing a series of hard punches on the Brazilian to win the round.
The fight only became possible when Ige stepped in at the last minute to replace Brian Ortega in the co-main. Ortega, who was not scheduled to be on the card until June 13, was officially announced to withdraw during the preliminary card due to an illness that left him with a fever of 103 degrees, forcing the UFC to turn to Ige to face Lopes and save the card.
The fight, which was held as a 165-pound catchweight, was only possible because Ige was already three weeks away from fighting in Las Vegas. Jeff Mullen, executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, told ESPN that Ige’s medical records, because they were up to date in the system, allowed the body to legally sanction the fight.
It’s hard to think of a fight that was set up later in UFC history. Ige told ESPN he was getting a massage when he started getting calls from UFC executive Hunter Campbell, manager Ali Abdelaziz and more.
“Eight weeks, six weeks, four weeks, four hours. It doesn’t matter. This is what I live for. This is my dream. I wake up and do what I love. I literally got a massage and I got a phone call from Hunter, Ali and a bunch of people. They said, ‘Hey, do you want to fight tonight?’ I thought, ‘Man, this is a chance to be a legend.’ This is a story I want to tell my grandchildren.
“I couldn’t be happier with my performance.”
The loss can hardly be blamed on Ige, who probably earned as many points with UFC president Dana White as is possible just by showing up to the arena. The gate for the event was $15.9 million, fourth highest in UFC history.
The experience wasn’t an easy journey for Lopes either, who was originally scheduled to face Ortega in a featherweight bout before the veteran asked to move it up to lightweight. Then a new opponent stepped in and made it 165. Like Ige, Lopes said through an interpreter that the chaos didn’t matter:
“Whoever, whenever, it doesn’t matter. I’ll fight anyone. I was like, ‘Hey, 145.’ Then at four in the morning I got the news: “It’s going to be 155.” And today, at 4 p.m., I found out that this fight was changing. It doesn’t matter.”
Both fighters now have maximum bonus points with the UFC and both said they want to use them to compete in the UFC 306 tournament at The Sphere in September.
UFC 303 saw Conor McGregor, Jamahal Hill and more withdraw
Withdrawals were a recurring theme for UFC 303. The card was initially announced with a main event featuring Conor McGregor’s return to the Octagon against Michael Chandler, with a co-main event between former light heavyweight champion Jamahal Hill and Khalil Rountree Jr.
A tainted addition saw Rountree withdraw from the co-main, with Carlos Ulberg stepping in as a replacement. Subsequently, McGregor and Hill were both forced to withdraw with injuries, leaving the UFC in dire straits. The end result was a new main event between light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira and former champion Jiří Procházka and the co-main between Lopes and Ortega.
Ulberg was set to face Anthony Smith, until Ulberg also withdrew and was replaced by Roman Dolidze. So the top three fights on the card have now seen a total of six withdrawals.
And that’s not even the end of it, as fights between Gillian Robertson and Michelle Waterson-Gomez, Cody Durden and Carlos Hernandez, and Andrei Arlovski and Martin Buday were all scheduled and then postponed or changed.
Long story short, it was a busy few weeks for White, who also had to deal with Khamzat Chimaev pulling out of his fight against Robert Whittaker the week before. Whittaker made short work of replacement Ikram Aliskerov.
