Dan Ige did the unimaginable at UFC 303 this past weekend (June 29, 2024).
Mixed martial arts (MMA) fans around the globe expected to see Brian Ortega vs. Diego Lopes in an exciting Featherweight co-main event showdown heading into International Fight Week 2024. Unfortunately for Ortega, that all changed at the latest second possible.
The two-time title challenger, Ortege, fell ill on fight day, forcing his withdrawal that led to arguably the craziest fight scramble in UFC history. On four hours’ notice, the promotion dialed up fellow ranked Featherweight, Ige, and miraculously slotted him into the match up with Lopes. Despite losing a fun three-round unanimous decision on the judges’ scorecard, Ige’s overall stock only increased.
“For no game planning, nothing, just going out there and having fun and fighting, I thought I did pretty well,” Ige told MMA Junkie. “In a way, it felt like I won. I won a lot of notoriety, I won fans, I got UFC favor, and it feels good. You don’t normally feel like this after a loss on a Tuesday, but the amount of just love and respect that I got from people, fans, the media, here we are, man. What a fricking wild night.”
Before Ige’s heroics, he was expected to return later this month in Las Vegas (July 20, 2024). Amid his typical recovery routines, Ige recalled keeping his phone silent before calls shifted to his wife as his manager and UFC CBO, Hunter Campbell, rang him 10 times.
When informed of the happenings and fight proposal, Ige didn’t even believe it was possible to step in. Ultimately, he scrambled to get some energy through some quick eats and water consumption before taking off to the arena and making the 165-pound Catchweight limit. Don’t expect to see something like this again anytime soon if ever.
“My massage therapist was at my house, she worked on my whole family, I was the last one,” Ige said. “I got on the table around 3 p.m. I had an hour and a half booked, and I had no clue I’d be fighting.
“I was just getting ready for Monday, recovering and getting ready for Sunday and then Monday because I was getting ready for a fight [on July 20], so I was just getting my body right,” he concluded.
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