Lopes vs. Silva: Injuries and Outlook of Fitness
Diego Lopes is set to face Jean Silva on September 13th, 2025, on UFC Fight Night, where these featherweight fighters will face off against one another. Diego has an impressive record of twenty-six wins versus seven losses. His opponent has sixteen wins and only two losses. However, it should be noted that both sustained injuries in the past, with Jean breaking both his hands against Drew Dober, and Diego was put on an indefinite medical suspension after his fight with Alexander Volkanovski. Overall, though these injuries could impact the length they spend in the ring, they could affect their individual methods of securing the win.
Jean relies on striking his opponents, too, and has even gone undefeated at this point. Diego has not had the same luck and lost his debut against Alexander, who gave him so many repeated blows to the face and other significant areas of impact that he had to be cleared medically for this fight. However, Diego is proficient at attempting takedowns, which could explain why he received the loss to Alexander by failing to realize the defense Alexander stacked against him during their twenty-five-minute and five-round bout. Suppose Diego could go the distance with Jean while riding his precise strikes. In that case, it's possible that he could attempt a takedown by the third round of the fight and secure a submission by analyzing Jean's higher defense capabilities to be taken down.
Regardless, it's proven by injuries of both fighters stepping in the Octagon that Diego will need to be wary of the distance between them, while Jean will simply need to keep up similar strategies from the past. If Jean attempts a submission in the fourth round, it will be a surprise as this striker typically wins by knockouts but has the capacity as a well-rounded fighter. Diego shares this, too, but instead of knockouts, his past few fights have been determined a win by decision. Hopefully, he can submit Jean to avoid that, as it's likely Jean will simply land more strikes than Diego throughout the duration of the fight. Let the feathers fly, though, as the fight goes to five rounds and is on the main card for the simple reason that both fighters desire to finish each fight they begin!
