Diego Lopes knocked out Jean Silva to move forward in pursuit of featherweight gold on Saturday night.
The duo headlined Noche UFC; a tribute to Mexican fighters on the weekend before Tuesday’s Independence Day. It was a big night for those being celebrated, with adopted Mexican Lopes representing in the main event.
Across the octagon, he faced a Silva who was feeling the pressure to land a big result after watching his Fighting Nerds teammates Mauricio Ruffy and Caio Borralho lose their unbeaten octagon records last week at UFC Paris.
Noche UFC Diego Lopes vs Jean Silva main event result
A raucous San Antonio crowd welcomed Diego Lopes, who moved to Mexico at the age of 19, into the octagon for his first fight since a losing world title effort. It followed a typically outlandish walk from Jean Silva, who put his 5-0 octagon record on the line.
And the fight started in perfect style for Lopes who got the takedown and fully mounted Silva, on whom he unloaded elbows. The Brazilian survived and got back to the feet, where he landed a big knee of his own to close out the round.
The second was much more favorable for Silva, who was able to keep the fight on the feet and show off his impressive striking. He wobbled Lopes twice with big right hands but then threw a lazy kick that allowed his rival to take him down, although Silva did recover.
And with seconds left in round two, Diego Lopes landed a spinning elbow from nowhere that sent the Fighting Nerd to the ground and scored him the TKO win!
Jean Silva held Fighting Nerds’ hopes in his hands at Noche UFC
At the turn of 2024, the entire male Fighting Nerds lineup was undefeated in the UFC octagon. However, by the time Silva was making his walk on Saturday, he remained the only one with such a record after his teammates all suffered high-profile defeats.
First it was Carlos Prates who was dominated over five rounds by Ian Machado Garry in a short-notice UFC Kansas City main event. He did, however, return to the win column shortly after by viciously knocking out Geoff Neal at UFC 319.
Then a UFC Paris disaster class followed as both Ruffy and Borralho in the co-main and main events respectively were defeated.