Overbooked And Underprepared: Cursed UFC 303 Card Saved By Absolute Studs

Overbooked And Underprepared: Cursed UFC 303 Card Saved By Absolute Studs

Everyone knows UFC 303’s card — though still good — is held together by duct tape and prayer.

That’s what happens when an entire card is banking on one man, and that man suddenly gets injured just about three weeks removed from the event. A handful of badass UFC contenders heard the call and answered: Jiri Prochazka, Alex Pereira, Diego Lopes, and Brian Ortega all stepped up to help save the card (and hopefully get paid for their efforts).

Unfortunately, there’s a reason fights are usually booked far in advance. Preparation is necessary to perform well at the highest levels, and fighters usually use the downtime between events to recover from injuries. “Poatan,” for example, was healing up from a couple broken toes when he accepted the challenge of putting his belt back on the line.

We’ll see if his performance is affected in a few short hours.

Ortega, meanwhile, has always been one of the biggest men at 145 lbs. It really shouldn’t be a surprise that he missed weight on short-notice ... or that trying to make weight wrecked his immune system and resulted in fever. Realistically, UFC likely could’ve prevented Ortega’s withdrawal by just booking the fight at Lightweight in the first place. Who cares if short-notice fighters don’t have to kill themselves to make weight? It’s special circumstance!

Either way, Ortega’s goose is cooked. He’s out. The card should take a massive hit in the loss of its co-main after already losing it’s main and co-main event earlier in the month. That’s an awful string of luck, but somehow, absolute legends Lopes and Dan Ige have stepped up even further.

For Ige: it pays to live in Las Vegas! Not only does living in “Sin City” allow access to the UFC Performance Institute and all manners of free training, but it puts fighters on the short-list of names to call from in short-notice scenarios. Aiding Ige’s situation is that he fought in Nevada back in February, when he defeated Andre Fili via first-round knockout, and was scheduled to fight in just three weeks inside the Apex.

Between those two bouts, all of Ige’s paper work — medical, blood, HIV, licensing — apparently was handled and left him ready to fight at UFC 303. That’s one major obstacle, but what about weigh-ins? Those happened 24 hours ago! Ige and Lopes are both career Featherweights, so they’re roughly the same size anyway, but good luck convincing commissions of such common sense.

Somehow, UFC pulled it off. A longstanding relationship with the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) surely helps, but in an unprecedented moment, both Lopes and Ige weighed in TODAY and were just a handful of pounds separate from one another. It is, quite frankly, miraculous. I’ve seen same-day opponent reorganizing happen at amateur events when lots of greenhorns miss weight, but this is something else entirely.

Really though, it’s the athletes who deserve all the credit. UFC and NSAC teamed up to push through some paper work and book a reasonable match up amidst the chaos — that’s good. Lopes and Ige, however, are actually putting a ton on the line here. Ige was in the midst of a fight camp, preparing to peak in three weeks. He could’ve run sprints, deadlifted a ton of volume, or sparred hard yesterday or even this morning. Who knows how that will affect his performance tonight?

For Lopes, the Brazilian prospect just lost out on a massive opportunity to advance into the Top Five. Ortega is one of the premier scalps in the division, and wonky weight cut aside, at least Lopes and Ortega accepted the fight with the same amount of notice. Comparatively, Ige has been in camp for who knows how long. He might be significantly more prepared to fight.

Instead of a chance to jump into title contention, Lopes faces an ultra tough veteran who is right next to him in the rankings. He does so having cut down to the Featherweight limit about 36 hours ago, an ordeal his opponent didn’t have to suffer. Who knows how all these x-factors come into play? Whatever the case and whatever the outcome, take a second to appreciate Lopes and Ige for being massively badass.

As for that outcome, check back here in a couple hours for a recap of the NEW UFC 303 co-main event.

POST-FIGHT UPDATE

As expected, Lopes vs. Ige was a really great fight.

The size and combination punching of Lopes gave Ige fits in the first frame. As Ige tried to find his range, Lopes was repeatedly able to burst into counter combinations, particularly from the clinch. He’d hammer Ige with hooks up and down the body then finish with a big knee. Impressively, the durable Hawaiian simply shook off those punches and kept working.

In the second, a picture-perfect high kick proved Ige’s undoing, as Lopes caught the kick off his forehead and took Ige down. He controlled most of the round there, putting Ige down on the scorecards with five minutes remaining.

Credit to “Dynamite,” he went for it. With Lopes fatiguing, Ige was able to find his distance more often, and he landed some cracking shots. Lopes fired back and kicked the calf, but his gas was gone. He took a bit of a beating, using his guard to survive the round and ultimately win the fight.

Give these warriors an additional round of applause!