Diego Lopes weighs in for two bouts ahead of UFC White House event

"

WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 13: UFC featherweight fighters Diego Lopes and Steve Garcia face off during the ceremonial weigh-in during the UFC Freedom 250 Fan Fest on The Ellipse ahead of the upcoming UFC Freedom 250 fight on the South Lawn of the White House on June 13, 2026 in Washington, DC. President Trump is hosting a series of Ultimate Fighting Championship matches on his 80th birthday on June 14, which the White House is calling "a once-in-a-generation celebration of the American fighting spirit." (Photo by Al Drago/Getty Images) | Getty Images This is the UFC White House live blog for Diego Lopes vs. Steve Garcia, the main card featherweight bout Sunday at the White House in Washington, D.C. The all-action fighters are expected to kick off the historic event with a bang, and there’s plenty on the line with Diego Lopes, currently No. 3 at 145 pounds in the MMA Fighting Global Rankings, defending his spot against the streaking Steve Garcia (No. 11), who looks to establish himself as a dark horse title contender. Lopes (27-8) has already had two cracks at the featherweight championship, having fallen short twice against all-time great Alexander Volkanovski. He burst onto the scene in 2023 with a strong short-notice performance in a losing effort against Movsar Evloev and then rattled off five consecutive victories to move to the front of the contender line. In between his two fights with Volkanovski, he also scored an impressive knockout over Jean Silva. Just behind Evloev for the longest current featherweight win streak in the UFC is Garcia, who has had his hand raised in seven straight contests. In his first headlining opportunity this past November, Garcia scored a first-round knockout of David Onama to keep his hot hand. Check out the UFC White House live blog for Diego Lopes vs. Steve Garcia below. Preamble This is surreal to watch. We’ve had some delay due to the weather conditions in Washington and I only wonder how that will affect fighters tonight — especially Lopes and Garcia, who basically had no exact idea when they would make the walk to the octagon. Minutes after the UFC announced a new start time at 9pm ET, the festivities began. BOOM, IT`S GO TIME! No better way to start #UFCWhiteHouse 👏 LIVE NOW on @ParamountPlus! [ UFC Freedom 250 Presented by @Cryptocom & @RamTrucks ] pic.twitter.com/zSusjJnsJx — UFC (@ufc) June 15, 2026 Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Official Decision Post-Fight

"

WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 13: Diego Lopes of Brazil poses on the scale during the UFC Freedom 250 Official Weigh-in at JW Marriott on June 13, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC) Diego Lopes is truly ready for anything at UFC White House. The featherweight contender is currently scheduled to fight Steve Garcia in the opener of Sunday’s historic show in Washington, D.C., and he successfully made weight for that matchup at Friday’s official weigh-ins, officially registering at 146 pounds. However, in a bizarre twist, it was later announced Lopes would weigh in again as a backup for the lightweight championship main event between Ilia Topuria and Justin Gaethje. Lopes’ second appearance saw him come in at 154 pounds. The moment drew a laugh from the fighter and reporters, but apparently this is no joke as UFC.com included the following statement on its weigh-in page: *Diego Lopes has also weighed-in at 154.0 pounds as a potential alternate in the lightweight division. Watch Lopes’ weigh-ins below. Diego Lopes literally weighed in twice for #UFCWhiteHouse pic.twitter.com/nm8x7j4z9z — MMA Fighting (@MMAFighting) June 13, 2026 Lopes is no stranger to fight week chaos. At UFC 303 in June 2024, Lopes was supposed to fight Brian Ortega in that show’s co-main event. When illness forced Ortega to withdraw from the bout on fight day, Dan Ige stepped up as a replacement and Lopes agreed to fight him in a 165-pound catchweight bout just hours before the event was to start. Now, it’s Lopes putting himself into position for a last-second save as he could either step in for undisputed champion Topuria or interim champion Gaethje should the need arise.

"

Diego Lopes available to save UFC White House main event