Movsar Evloev BEATS Diego Lopes’ weak title performance: “He showed nothing”

Movsar Evloev has given his opinion on Diego Lopes’ performance against Alexander Volkanovski last month.

At UFC 325, Volkanovski defended his featherweight title against Lopes in a rematch, and the fight went much the same as their first UFC 314 meeting.

‘The Great’ again had a calculated approach. He stayed out of Lopes’ shooting zone, waited for him to make an attack and caught the Brazilian with sharp one-twos whenever he looked to land something big.

In 2025, after ‘The Great’ captured the vacant title by defeating Lopes to become a two-time champion, he looked to make the first defense of his second reign against Evloev or Lerone Murphy, both of whom are undefeated.

However, the promotion gave Lopes a chance to turn things around after the former knocked out Jean Silva at Noche UFC 2025.

Movsar Evloev says there was “no reason” to give Diego Lopes a title repeat

Movsar Evloev thought Lerone Murphy was originally going to fight for the title after the Brit spoiled Aaron Pico’s UFC debut by knocking out Pico in round 1. However, Lopes was given the opportunity, which “surprised” Evloev, and the result remained the same. In a recent interview with MMA junkieEvloev said:

“And then Murphy wins with a good performance, then he’s supposed to fight for the title. Then they gave the title back to Diego, and okay, no problem. I’ll wait.”

The Russian fighter then slammed Diego Lopes for not working hard enough and not showing any improvements in the rematch.

“Then he showed us that nothing changed from the first title fight with Volk. There was no reason to give him that title shot again. But now we know it and everyone knows it too, the UFC knows it. So now me and Murphy will share the spot for the number one contender for the title.”

Watch Movsar Evloev’s comments below (2:40):

Movsar Evloev and Lerone Murphy will meet in the main event of UFC London on March 21, with the winner expected to next challenge current and two-time UFC featherweight kingpin Alexander Volkanovski.

However, Jean Silva, who recently returned to winning ways, has called up the Australian champion. The question now is whether the UFC will once again ignore its best and worthy contenders by giving someone else a title shot. Let’s hope not.