Gustavo_Lopez_(fighter)

Gustavo Lopez (fighter)

Gustavo Lopez (fighter)

American mixed martial arts fighter

Gustavo Hernandez Lopez[1] (born June 27, 1989) is an American mixed martial artist who competes in the Bantamweight division. A professional since 2012, he has competed for the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Quick Facts Born, Nationality ...

Background

Lopez was raised in Wapato, Washington, along with two brothers.[6] As a freshman in 2004, Lopez started his wrestling career at Wapato High School after his friends “tricked” him into trying out for the team.[6] Four seasons, three state appearances and two medals at Mat Classic initially led to a full athletic scholarship to Stanford University.[4] Nevertheless, Gustavo didn't want to leave his recently-widowed mother and move to California, so he resorted to turn the offer down and attend local Yakima Valley College.[4] While competing there, he qualified for the NJCAA tournament twice while earning an associate’s degree in business accounting.[6]

While in community college, Gustavo began training at Yakima MMA and after a friend asked Lopez to corner a fight and a fighter on the card dropped out on the day of the event, Lopez agreed to step in and knocked out his opponent in seven seconds. He won his next eight amateur fights, turning pro in 2009 after it became difficult to find challengers. During the same time period, he became a nationally ranked NAIA wrestler at 141 pounds and earned his bachelor's degree in finance at Menlo College in 2014.[6][4]

Mixed martial arts career

Early career

Starting his professional career in 2012, Lopez started out with Cagesport, where he went 2–1, before fighting for Bellator MMA at Bellator 2014 Monster Energy Cup against Sean Cantor, who he beat by first round rear-naked choke.[7]

After this, he signed with Combate Americas, where he would mostly fight for the next 4 years. During this run, he fought for the Bantamweight title 3 times, losing the first two times to John Castañeda and José Alday, before winning on the third time in a rematch against José Alday at Combate 33 via TKO in the first round. He then defended the title against Joey Ruquet at Combate 42 on August 23, 2019. He won the fight via KOing Ruquet in a first round.[8]

Ultimate Fighting Championship

On June 11, 2020, news broke that Lopez had signed with the UFC and would be replacing Ray Borg on short notice against Merab Dvalishvili on June 13, 2020, at UFC on ESPN: Eye vs. Calvillo.[9] However, Combate Americas' CEO Campbell McLaren claimed they were not given a right to match UFC's offer and Lopez is still under the contract matching period.[10] However, the contract dispute was eventually sorted out and Lopez was allowed to join the UFC.[10][11] He lost the bout via unanimous decision.[12]

Lopez faced Anthony Birchak, replacing Felipe Colares, on November 7, 2020, at UFC on ESPN: Santos vs. Teixeira.[13] He won the fight via a submission in round one.[14]

Lopez faced Adrian Yañez on March 20, 2021, at UFC on ESPN 21.[15] He lost the fight via knockout in round three.[16]

Lopez faced Alateng Heili on September 18, 2021, at UFC Fight Night 192.[17] The fight ended up with a draw.[18]

After the draw, it was announced that Lopez was no longer on the UFC roster.[19]

Post UFC

In his first bout after his UFC release, Lopez faced Filip Macek on December 30, 2022, at Oktagon 38 for the Interim OKMMA Bantamweight Championship, winning the bout and the title via guillotine choke at the end of the first round.[20]

He would face reigning champion Jonas Mågård on April 15, 2023 at Okatgon 41, losing the bout in the second round via TKO stoppage.[21]

He would attempt to rebound against Beno Adamia on October 7, 2023 at Oktagon 47, however he would end up losing the bout via unanimous decision.[22]

Championships and accomplishments

Mixed martial arts record

Professional record breakdown
22 matches 13 wins 8 losses
By knockout 5 5
By submission 7 0
By decision 1 3
Draws 1
More information Res., Record ...

[23]

See also

References

  1. [1]
    Mixed martial arts show results Date: June 13, 2020
  2. [2]
    "Gustavo Lopez | UFC". UFC.com. 11 June 2020. Retrieved March 21, 2021.
  3. [3]
    "Stats | UFC". ufcstats.com. Retrieved 2020-10-04.
  4. [4]
    Alberto Pérez (April 17, 2017). "Gustavo López, peleador de MMA, se repuso a la pérdida de su padre usando el deporte". dailypress.com.
  5. [5]
    Ryan Dorfman. "Gustavo Lopez: Combate's Champion". mymmanews.com.
  6. [6]
    "Wapato's Lopez thankful for MMA success, community support". Yakima herald. 2020-02-01. Retrieved 2020-02-01.
  7. [7]
    "Bellator MMA 'Monster Energy Cup' results from Oct. 18 at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas". mmamania. 2014-08-18. Retrieved 2020-02-01.
  8. [8]
    "Combate Tahoe: Gustavo Lopez unleashes hellacious first-round KO on Joey Ruquet to retain bantamweight title". sportingnews. 2019-08-24. Retrieved 2020-02-01.
  9. [9]
    Nolan King and John Morgan (2020-06-11). "Ray Borg out of UFC on ESPN 10, Dvalisvhili now fights Combate Americas champ Lopez (UPDATE)". mmajunkie.usatoday.com. Retrieved 2020-06-11.
  10. [10]
    Amy Kaplan (June 11, 2020). "Campbell McLaren says Gustavo Lopez is still under contract with Combate Americas". fansided.com.
  11. [11]
    Riley Kontek (January 25, 2021). Shootin' the Shit Ep. 39: Gustavo Lopez – via YouTube.
  12. [12]
    Bitter, Shawn (2020-06-13). "UFC on ESPN 10 Results: Merab Dvalishvili's Pace Too Much for Gustavo Lopez". Cageside Press. Retrieved 2020-06-14.
  13. [13]
    DNA, MMA (2020-11-04). "Anthony Birchak keert terug in de UFC, treft Gustavo Lopez aanstaande zaterdag in Las Vegas". MMA DNA. Retrieved 2020-11-04.
  14. [14]
    Evanoff, Josh (2020-11-07). "UFC Vegas 13 Results: Gustavo Lopez Finishes Anthony Birchak". Cageside Press. Retrieved 2020-11-08.
  15. [15]
    DNA, MMA (2020-12-08). "Adrian Yanez treft Gustavo Lopez tijdens UFC evenement op 20 maart 2021". MMA DNA. Retrieved 2020-12-08.
  16. [16]
    Behunin, Alex (2021-03-20). "UFC Vegas 22 Results: Adrian Yanez KO's Gustavo Lopez In Third Round". Cageside Press. Retrieved 2021-03-21.
  17. [17]
    Boussenaf, Jamal (2021-07-21). "Gustavo Lopez en Heili Alateng treffen elkaar op 18 september". MMA DNA. Retrieved 2021-07-22.
  18. [18]
    Behunin, Alex (2021-09-18). "UFC Vegas 37 Results: Gustavo Lopez vs. Heili Alateng Ends In A Draw". Cageside Press. Retrieved 2021-09-18.
  19. [19]
    Tabuena, Anton (2022-02-10). "Report: 11 more fighters removed from UFC roster". Bloody Elbow. Retrieved 2022-02-10.
  20. [20]
    Head, Simon (2022-12-30). "Oktagon 38 results: Gustavo Lopez crowned interim bantamweight champion on spectacular night in Prague". Fighters Only. Retrieved 2022-12-31.
  21. [21]
    Head, Simon (2023-04-18). "Oktagon 41: Jonas Magard unifies bantamweight titles with TKO finish in Liberec". Fighters Only. Retrieved 2023-11-11.
  22. [22]
    Staff (2023-10-07). "Oktagon 47: Vemola vs. Langer Full Results". Cageside Press. Retrieved 2023-11-11.
  23. [23]
    Sherdog.com. "Gustavo Lopez". Sherdog. Retrieved 2020-08-07.
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Gustavo_Lopez_(fighter), and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.