Diego Lopes convincingly beat Brian Ortega tonight at UFC 306, dropping him a few times on his way to a unanimous decision victory.
Round One:
Ortega with a sort flurry. Leg kick for Lopes. Right hand and a huge left from Lopes rocks Ortega badly. Ortega somehow stays upright but doesn’t have his legs under him as Lopes swarms in with strikes.
Lopes opts to take Ortega down. Ground-and-pound from Lopes. Ortega has a cut to his left eye, but he’s still in the fight for now. Lopes lands another punch and then stands over Ortega. He goes back down in to his guard though, showing no fear of the BJJ specialist.
Ortega has survived that terrible start and now Lopes opts to stand and get ‘T-City’ back on his feet.
Uppercut from Ortega. Now a jab for him. He misses a couple of punches but lands a right. Ortega lands again. Now a right hand counter from Lopes.
Calf kick for Lopes. Left hand for Ortega. Left hook from Lopes. Lopes with a short flurry to the body and head.
Round Two:
Calf kick from Lopes. Inside leg kick from Ortega. Ortega steps in with a missed punch and Lopes punishes him with a crisp flurry of punches that land.
Jab for Ortega. Now a right hand. Right hand for Lopes. Nice body shot for Lopes. Now a low kick. And again. Ortega gets in for a single-leg takedown attempt, but Lopes drags his leg away.
Body punch for Ortega. Calf kick for Lopes. leg kicks from Ortega. Overhand from Lopes misses. He just comes up short with a big left hook too. Right hook does graze the target though.
Head kick from Lopes gets through but Ortega eats it. One-two for Lopes. calf kick from Lopes puts Ortega down. He stays down hoping Lopes will follow, but nothing doing so he has to stand back up.
Another low kick for Lopes. One-two for Ortega. Another low kick for Lopes. solid right hand. Left hook for Ortega.
Nice jab from Ortega. Calf kick for Lopes. Jab for Ortega.
Round Three:
Ortega’s leg almost gives way on him as he steps on it. Lopes lands a calf kick. Jab for Ortega. Punch and then a leg kick for Lopes.
Body-head combo from Lopes, but then Ortega fires back with punches. Solid right for Lopes. Ortega puts together a combination.
Right hand for Lopes. Jab for Ortega. And again. He’s landing his jab more frequently now, but needs something behind it if he wants to finish this fight.
Ortega closes the distance trying to find a route to getting the fight to the mat, but Lopes prevents that and gets back to striking range.
Ortega still trying to gets something going with his hands, but then Lopes lands another good punch. They clinch up, but not for long.
Power punch from Ortega just misses. calf kick for Lopes and a punch behind it. left hook for Lopes. Body punches in close from Lopes and then a punch to the jaw sends Ortega reeling backwards onto the canvas.
Ortega back up as Lopes tried and failed to hop onto his back. Final seconds of the round and Ortega eats a final big punch but stays upright.
Decision:
Absolutely no doubt about the winner here with Lopes badly rocking Ortega early in the fight and continuing to punish him throughout the fight, including dropping him again in the third, but credit to ‘T-City’ for showcasing his incredible toughness and fighting on until the final bell. Nonetheless, a dominant unanimous decision win for Lopes (30-26, 30-27 x2).
