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On Sept. 14, the promotion will stage UFC 306, also known as “Noche UFC,” at The Sphere in Las Vegas. This venue with a reported 18,600 seats will serve as the one-off location for a pay-per-view card headlined by Sean O'Malley vs. Merab Dvalishvili for the bantamweight throne. On Friday, the organization announced the full, ordered lineup of all 10 matches, with remade pairing between Brian Ortega (16-3, 1 NC) and Diego Lopes (25-6) in the “featured fight of the night” slot.
Ortega and Lopes were originally slated to compete at UFC 303, but a fight week snafu involving Ortega’s weight ballooned into an issue with Ortega’s health. The bout, once set for featherweight and then 155 pounds, fell apart on the night of the event. The promotion slotted in Dan Ige on mere hours’ notice to face Lopes, and the two engaged in a back-and-forth 165-pound catchweight battle that Lopes ultimately won. The UFC noted that it planned on putting the fight back together again at a later date.
Before battling Ige, Lobo Gym MMA export Lopes had strung together three first-round finishes in the Octagon. After losing his short-notice debut to the unbeaten Movsar Evloev, the Brazilian tapped Gavin Tucker in 98 seconds, punched out Pat Sabatini in 90 seconds and then drummed out Sodiq Yusuff in 89 seconds, all within a calendar year. As a professional, the 29-year-old from Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil, has earned 88% of his wins via stoppage, with a nearly even distribution of knockouts to submissions.
Although the fight ultimately fell through, Ortega struggled mightily to reach his proper weight limit of 146 pounds ahead of the June 29 show. While “T-City” took the bout on short notice—as did Lopes—he had to ask for modification of the match’s status to move it to lightweight. Ortega did hit the scale at 155 pounds, but the subsequent illness scuttled his opportunity on the big show. A victory for Ortega would put him on his first win streak since 2018, when six straight triumphs pushed him into an unsuccessful title tilt against Max Holloway.
In addition to Ortega vs. Lopes, the UFC finalized the bout order of all 10 contests on the evening. With O’Malley-Dvalishvili and Alexa Grasso-Valentina Shevchenko 3 on top, the main card will be rounded out by a lightweight clash between Daniel Zellhuber (15-1) and Esteban Ribovics, while opening with a flyweight throwdown of Ronaldo Rodriguez (16-2) vs. Ode Osbourne (12-7, 1 NC). The previously announced 135-pound affair between Raul Rosas Jr. and Qileng Aori will serve as the curtain-jerker.
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