During his time away, Lopez also became a dad to a baby girl. He’s been able to focus on being a family man and not spending so much time in the gym. He feels that his time away from the Octagon allowed him to evolve not just as a fighter, but a man, as well.
The 28-year-old has been keeping up with what’s going on in the fight world, even though he hasn’t been fighting, and he’s excited to show everything that he has gained during his time away.
“Although I haven’t fought, I haven’t missed a prelim on any fight card; the first fight of the night to the last, I study,” Lopez said. “I’m like a fight encyclopedia, I know most of the fights and most people’s styles, and I feel like I’ve grown and evolved mentally, even though they haven’t seen it.”
Lopez admits that the first couple weeks in fight camp were rough, since he wasn’t in an intense fight camp or training and dieting like he was used to when he was fighting constantly. He has been focused on rebuilding good habits and losing his ‘dad bod’.
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Now it’s full steam ahead to Bautista, who is coming into the matchup on a two-fight win streak, defeating Jay Perrin and Brian Kelleher. Bautista has earned three of his ten wins by knockout and four by submission. On the other hand, Lopez has never been knocked out in his career and his lone loss was by submission.
