Henry Cejudo believes Diego Lopes’ UFC 303 win shows he’s not ready for top featherweights

Henry Cejudo says Diego Lopes hype needs to be ‘curbed’

In a recent episode of the Book 4 books podcast, Cejudo gave a critical assessment of Lopes’ performance at UFC 303.

“I’m not sure Diego Lopes would really be ready to fight a guy like Brian Ortega,” Cejudo said of Lopes. “Was I impressed? A little bit, but the more videos that come out, the more you can see him fighting other title contenders and guys that have been ranked in the Top 15, Top 10. I think Diego Lopes has to slow down and keep fighting a lot of these other fighters to really catch up to a Top 10 guy, or even a Top 5 guy…

“You have to remember that Brian Ortega is the No. 3. I think he’s still developing. Keep fighting guys at his level so you can eventually get to a guy like Brian Ortega.”

As of this writing, Lopes has not responded to Cejudo’s remarks.

Lopes has been on a roll since his last-minute loss to Movsar Evloer at UFC 288. He has finished three of his last four fights, including a wild knockout of Sodiq Yusuff at UFC 300.

The UFC may want to push Lopes to face top featherweights, but Cejudo believes that could be a major mistake for the sake of his career.