Diego Lopes Recalls Move to Mexico Early in MMA Career

Diego Lopes recently shared details about his move to Mexico, where he has now found a new home.

Having started training jiu-jitsu very early in his career, Lopes made his MMA debut at the age of 17 and fought five times within the span of a year. However, things weren’t going well for Lopes academically, forcing him to chose between studying and working.

So when someone approached him with a job in Mexico as a jiu-jitsu instructor, Lopes couldn’t refuse — although he had no idea about the culture or language of that country. At 19 years of age, Lopes left his home in Sao Paulo, Brazil, for Puebla, Mexico. The Portuguese-speaking Lopes also had initial trouble communicating with his students, forcing him to quickly learn Spanish.

“School wasn’t going well for me,” Lopes recently said on UFC Connected. “One day my mom said, ‘Either you work or you study. What do you want to do?’ But I wanted to keep fighting to stay on the path. She asked, ‘What will you do?’ I said, ‘I want to be a fighter.’ One day this guy arrived at our gym. He approached me and asked, ‘Do you want to go to Mexico?’ And to be honest, I didn’t even know where Mexico was. I had no idea what language they spoke. I had no idea what this was all about, other than that they wanted me to teach. So I said, ‘Yes, I’ll go.’ Imagine arriving in a country where you don’t speak the language, and you have to teach classes but you don’t know how to communicate with the students. That forced me to learn Spanish very quickly.”

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In Mexico, Lopes met UFC flyweight Alessandro Costa , who is also from Sao Paulo, and together they set up the Brazilian Warriors gym. They then came across the Lobo Gym MMA team consisting of the likes of Irena Aldana and Alexa Grasso , which is headed by Grasso’s uncle Francisco, who is better known as “Pancho.” Lopes has since been working with the Lobo Gym team.

Lopes was initially focused solely on coaching and was seen ecstatic in Grasso’s corner as she won the flyweight title with an upset win over Valentina Shevchenko at UFC 285 in March 2023. Two months later, Lopes got a short-notice call for a UFC debut against the undefeated Movsar Evloev . While he dropped a unanimous decision, Lopes was given the majority of the credit for the fight being awarded “Fight of the Night.” Lopes then rapidly rose to stardom with three consecutive first-round finishes before beating Dan Ige on four hours’ notice in a catchweight bout at UFC 303 .

Lopes now takes on Brian Ortega at UFC 306 on Saturday at the Sphere in Las Vegas, which is also the UFC’s yearly tribute to Mexico. Having now found a family in Mexico in his teammates, friends and coaches, the Brazilian is motivated to put on a show every time he sees a Mexican flag.

“Here in Mexico I have a family. My family is my Mexican friends, coaches, and training partners,” he said. “I’ve adapted very well here. Meeting people here in Mexico that share the same dream motivates me greatly. Every time I see a Mexican flag, [it] pushes us to put on a great show to make the people proud.”