Saturday’s previously scheduled main event may have been derailed by the littlest piggy, but that doesn’t mean UFC 303 doesn’t still have plenty to offer for fight fans.
After Conor McGregor’s broken pinky toe caused the cancellation of the former double champion’s fight against Michael Chandler, the UFC went into event-saving mode. And while the new headliner for Saturday’s card may not be of the caliber as the biggest star in the sport making his return after nearly three years out of the Octagon, there will at least be a championship belt on the line.
[Related: How to watch UFC 303 without ESPN+ or cable]
UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira (10-2, 8 KOs) agreed to run it back with former champion Jiří Procházka (30-4, 26 KOs) on Saturday (10 p.m. ET, ESPN+ PPV) at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. And just like that, the show will go on. The two met in the cage previously at UFC 295 in November with Pereira claiming the vacant light heavyweight title with a second-round TKO.
In an unprecedented move, the co-main event will feature a truly last-minute bout at 165 pounds between rising prospect Diego Lopes and late-notice replacement Dan Ige. Lopes was originally supposed to fight Brian Ortega, but Ortega dropped out Saturday due to illness and was replaced by Ige just hours before the PPV broadcast began.
Follow our live blog below for all of the results, highlights and analysis from fight night with Yahoo Sports:
Live102 updates
As he told @abushito on Tuesday, Diego Lopes wears the Mexico fight kit for the first time in his UFC career #UFC303
— Rodrigo Del Campo González (@RodDelCampo) June 30, 2024
UFC production crew deserves some serious props for making a video promo for a fight that just came into existence a couple of hours ago #UFC303
Kudos to the UFC production staff, theyre world class and they turned around this Dan Ige package in hours, plus graohics, plus stats. Great work. Staff are always the unsung heroes of production #UFC303
— Rodrigo Del Campo González (@RodDelCampo) June 30, 2024
BIG UPS to the production team for turning around an Ige and Lopes promo on a few hours notice.
Who they are: Lopes may have the haircut of a mid-2000s emo bassist, but his three-fight finishing streak suggests he’s developing into a genuinely dangerous featherweight. Dan Ige is a career featherweight who stepped in on the latest notice in UFC history. He has four Performance of the Night bonuses to his name.
Why it matters: It really doesn’t. The fight is at 165 pounds, Ige was training for a different fight until earlier Saturday when he got the call to step in and Lopes has never fought above 145 pounds. This is a win-win for the prize fighters as they’ll both get paid for even showing up, but at the end of the day it shouldn’t affect their standing in the division win or lose.
RESULT: Roman Dolidze def. Anthony Smith by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
To the scorecards we go …
Smith and Dolidze go the distance and now we get to hear how the judges scored the fight. Smith gassed out in the second half of the fight, but Dolidze really didn’t land anything of major significance.
Not a good fight between Smith and Dolidze. Understood that this was short notice, so we have to have managed expectations, but it just wasn’t fun.
The Georgian landed a big left that wobbled Smith, who stumbled his way to the mat. It was all Dolidze after that, but he couldn’t get the finish from the back or top. Onto round 3 we go.
Round 1 in the books
“That’s how spoiled the crowd is, they’re booing this.” – Joe Rogan, watching a bad fight
Who they are: A couple of 35-year-old fighters trying to squeeze what they can out of their remaining years in the cage. Smith breathed some life back into his career with a surprising submission win in May. Dolidze has lost two straight and is fighting at light heavyweight here after several years down at middleweight.
Why it matters: Technically, both these guys are replacements. Dolidze is actually a replacement for a replacement, but whatever. It’s an entirely new fight at this point, and one that’s acting as a Band-Aid for a particularly beleaguered spot on this lineup. Consider this fight the bridge between the main card warm-up and the big stuff.
Rogan wanted the fight to continue
“It’s just blood” should be added to the list of bad Rogan commentary soundbites #UFC303
RESULT: Macy Chiasson def. Mayra Bueno Silva by TKO (doctor’s stoppage) at 1:58 of R2
Gotta be a bad feeling when they’re checking a cut on your face and you can hear the crowd go ooooohhh when a close-up of your face is shown on the big screen.
A doctor has been called into the cage to take a look at Bueno Silva’s cut. The gash is shown on the big screen and crowd audibly gasps in unison. It’s bad.
Bueno Silva’s forehead is LEAKING
Chiasson scores a vicious slicing elbow from top position to start round 2 and MBS is leaking.
That said, MBS has postured for an armbar. About to get dicey.
Bueno Silva and Chiasson traded some big shots in R1
I love that Macy Chiasson was talking about doing everything not to waste once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and meanwhile Mayra Bueno Silva is like “whatever, this division is trash”
