Diego Lopes: "It's always been a bit of a popularity contest"- Alexander Volkanovski's coach supports fan criticism of booking a second fight with Diego Lopes

Alexander Volkanovski’s coach has stepped into the debate around the UFC’s choice to book an immediate rematch with Diego Lopes at UFC 325. He explained that the team originally prepared for a December headliner and expected Lerone Murphy or Movsar Evloev to be next in line.

Both fighters are unbeaten and have built strong cases for a title shot. Volkanovski's head coach, Joe Lopez, said the rematch came together shortly after Lopes produced his knockout win against Jean Silva.

The shift surprised the camp because the first fight was one-sided for the most part and did not leave much scope for talks of unfinished business. Speaking about the matchup in an interview with Submission Radio, Lopez said:

"We thought it was going to be either Mosvar or Murphy... So we had that... When Murphy had that spectacular KO [against Aaron Pico], we said, 'Yeah, it is Murphy.' All indications led to Murphy until Diego had his spectacular KO, and everything changed. They wanted Lopes, and I don’t think Lopes was going to be ready in December. So all along Lopes was the frontrunner."

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He added:

"It has always been a bit of a popularity contest, who is the most popular. Whether it is a Paramount deal, I don’t know. There have been a lot of negotiations behind the scenes, but at the end of the day, they are the ones calling the shots. I know the fans are not happy. A couple of the boys have been telling me about the comments. They are not very favorable. No disrespect to Diego, but like I said, when your last fight, when you beat him, and it was not like it was a close fight, it was very one-sided."

Check out Joe Lopez's comments below (2:10 onwards):

Alexander Volkanovski's coach expects a confident fighter in the rematch with Diego Lopes

Alexander Volkanovski’s coach, Joe Lopez, believes the rematch leans heavily in their favor because the team spent five full rounds gathering information they can now refine.

He expects Diego Lopes to look similar to the first meeting. Volkanovski enters this camp with a clear mind and far less pressure than he carried in their first meeting at UFC 314. Speaking in the aforementioned interview with Submission Radio, he said:

"I think Alex is a lot more confident this time, you know, he had a lot of doubt and a lot of pressure on him on the last fight after coming back from the loss. So this time out, he's coming with a different mindset than he did in the last one. It's more like he's the old Alex again, where the last one he had to prove he was Alex again...I feel he's a lot calmer in his training, and he's not putting that much pressure on himself, because he knows that he still got it."