Nigerian UFC featherweight star Sodiq Yusuff is looking to bounce back from his recent loss to veteran Edson Barboza and add Brazilian Diego Lopes to his win column at UFC 300. 

The fight is part of a stacked UFC 300 card headlined by the light heavyweight title clash between Alex Pereira and Jamahal Hill. Sodiq Yusuff will be looking to make light work of unranked Lopes despite his popularity amongst UFC fans in Brazil and Mexico – where he lives and trains. 

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Lopes started his UFC career with a unanimous decision loss to fifth-ranked Movsar Evloev but has since secured two victories against fellow unranked Gavin Tucker (Submission; armbar) and unranked Pat Sabatini (KO; punches). A win over Sodiq Yusuff ranked in the top 15, would be a big step towards his own UFC ranking.

This will be his second fight against a top 15 featherweight fighter in the UFC and a win will move him closer to getting his first UFC ranking profile, but ‘Super Sodiq’ looks unfazed by his opponent.

“He has a lot of popularity from the Brazilian and the Mexican side,” Yusuff said of Lopes. “As a fighter, he’s okay — he has decent boxing and good jiu-jitsu.

“Before the UFC, the competition wasn’t there, and even in the UFC, it’s one-dimensional strikers or grapplers.”

While a win might not significantly boost Yusuff’s ranking, it would solidify his position in the featherweight division.

“It just solidifies my spot,” Yusuff answered when asked what a win over Lopes does for him going forward, fully aware of the situation he’s stepping into this weekend. “The people that know, know — they know the type of fighter that I am — and beating Diego just solidifies that.”

Yusuff defeated the last unranked opponent he faced in 30 seconds.