Top Reasons to Catch Noche UFC

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Perhaps no one in the Ultimate Fighting Championship featherweight division carries more momentum than Jean Silva.

The burgeoning Fighting Nerds star will look to climb several more rungs on the 145-pound ladder when he confronts Diego Lopes in the UFC Fight Night 259 headliner on Saturday at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio. Silva has rattled off 13 straight victories, 12 of them finishes. The 28-year-old Brazilian last saw action in April, when he disposed of Bryce Mitchell with a ninja choke in the second round of their encounter. It moved Silva to a perfect 5-0 inside the Octagon. Lopes, meanwhile, has won five of his past six bouts. The Lobo Gym export last suited up at UFC 314, where he wound up on the wrong side of a five-round unanimous decision against Alexander Volkanovski in a failed bid to capture the vacant featherweight crown. Lopes, 30, has secured 22 of his 26 professional victories by knockout, technical knockout or submission, 14 of them inside one round.

In addition to the high-stakes Silva-Lopes matchup on the marquee, here are three other reasons to catch UFC Fight Night 259:

Revelatory Lense

Longtime contender Rob Font finds himself in the midst of a resurgence as he navigates his late 30s. The New England Cartel standout attempts to retain his Top 10 ranking when he squares off with former Combate Global champion David Martinez in the three-round bantamweight co-main event. Font, 38, steps back into view on the strength of back-to-back wins over Kyler Phillips and Jean Matsumoto. Only one man has managed to finish the Tyson Chartier protégé—Pedro Munhoz did the honors via guillotine choke in 2017—during his 30-fight career. On the other side of the ledger, Martinez fills in as a short-notice replacement for Raul Rosas Jr. The 27-year-old Bonebreakers MMA rep last competed on March 29, when he wiped out Saimon Oliveira with a knee strike and follow-up punches in the first round of their UFC on ESPN 64 pairing. Martinez has pieced together an eight-fight winning streak.

A Test of Mettle

The degree of difficulty does not diminish much for Tatiana Suarez. Some seven months after failing to capture the women’s strawweight championship in a unanimous decision defeat to Weili Zhang, the Millennia MMA mainstay returns to the stage to meet Amanda Lemos in a featured prelim at 115 pounds. The loss to Zhang was Suarez’s first as a pro and sent “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 23 winner back to the drawing board. Lemos now stands in her path. The 38-year-old former Jungle Fight champion sports a respectable 9-4 record across her 13 assignments in the UFC. Lemos last fought at UFC 313, where she laid claim to a three-round unanimous decision over Iasmin Lucindo on March 8. Victories over Mizuki Inoue, Angela Hill, Michelle Waterson-Gomez, Marina Rodriguez and Mackenzie Dern anchor her resume.

Attached to Reality

Rodrigo Sezinando and Daniil Donchenko are set to close the book on Season 33 of “The Ultimate Fighter” reality series with their intriguing welterweight final on the undercard. Both men represented Team Daniel Cormier on the 12-week show. Sezinando enters the cage with the wind of a four-fight winning streak in his sails. The Nova Uniao-trained Brazilian eliminated Diego Bianchini and Jefferson Creighton to advance to the final. Sezinando has held titles in the Battlefield Fight League and Samourai MMA organizations. Donchenko, meanwhile, heads into the Octagon having strung together four consecutive victories. A former Naiza Fighter Championship titleholder, he bounced Richard Martins and Matt Dixon to proceed to the final. Donchenko boasts nine finishes among his 11 career wins.