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An exciting Contender Series alum is finally back in action.

According to MMA Junkie Benito Lopez is set to return to action after a whopping 1212 days on the sidelines. That outlet reports that he is due to face Mario Bautista at a UFC event on November 5.

Lopez made his MMA debut for Bellator back in 2014 (as a flyweight). After plying his trade with WFC and KOTC he made his way to the inaugural season of Dana White’s Contender Series in 2017.

He appeared on the seventh episode of that debut season, earning a split decision victory over Steven Peterson. The then 23-year-old was one of just a handful of fighters to be signed off that show without producing a stoppage.

After that showing he was booked to fight Albert Morales at UFC Fight Night: Swanson vs. Ortega. He won that bout by unanimous decision.

Next up Lopez faced Manny Bermudez at UFC on ESPN: Ngannou vs. Velasquez in February 2019. Bermudez handed Lopez his first pro loss via a first round guillotine choke.

Lopez rebounded with a win over Vince Morales at UFC Fight Night: de Randamie vs. Ladd in July, 2019.

Sometime after that he suffered an injury which forced him out of competition for over three years.

Lopez’s scheduled opponent, Mario Bautista, is 10-2 on his career. He beat Brian Kelleher by first round submission in June to take his UFC record to 4-2.

Lopez vs. Bautista is the only fight currently booked for the UFC’s November 5 card. That card is yet to receive an official name and its venue is TBA.

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is working on a potential 155-pound matchup between top division contenders Dustin Poirier and Michael Chandler, currently attached to the upcoming UFC 281 pay-per-view (PPV) fight card, set to go down on Sat., Nov. 12, 2022 inside Madison Square Garden in New York City.

The Sports Books over at BetOnline.ag opened Poirier as the -150 favorite, but “The Diamond” quickly jumped to -180 (5/9). As of this writing, Chandler is the +155 (31/20) underdog. Like most betting lines, you can expect these numbers to fluctuate as we get closer to fight night.

Poirier (28-7, 1 NC) is coming off a second-round submission loss to then-lightweight champion Charles Oliveira, snapping a three-fight winning streak that included back-to-back wins over Conor McGregor. “The Diamond” has captured 10 of his last 12 and is currently ranked No. 2 at 155 pounds.

That’s three spots above the No. 5-ranked Chandler, who managed to put together a 2-2 record since crossing over from Bellator MMA back in late 2020. “Iron” is coming off a “Knockout of the Year” contender opposite Tony Ferguson at UFC 274, which led to a “Notorious” callout that will remain unanswered.

No other bouts have been announced for the upcoming UFC 281 event in New York and there’s still the possibility that Poirier vs. Chandler gets moved to a later card — or doesn’t happen at all, depending on whether or not both parties agree to a five-round fight, as per “The Diamond’s” request.

Stay tuned.

Diaz has a history of playing spoiler at the expense of up-and-coming superstars.

Nate Diaz will (finally) return to combat sports action when he collides with welterweight phenom Khamzat Chimaev in the upcoming UFC 279 pay-per-view (PPV) main event on Sept. 10 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Diaz remains a huge betting underdog against “Borz” in what could be the Stockton slugger’s final appearance under the UFC banner. But not everyone is expecting this to be the one-sided mismatch the betting lines reflect.

“I don’t really think Khamzat is as good as they say he is,” welterweight contender Jorge Masvidal told MMA Fighting. “I haven’t seen anything that makes me a believer in this guy yet. They probably wanted to pair Diaz with someone, stylistically, that’s not the best when I think of fucking Khamzat, so they gave him a boring ass wrestler who is going to try and hug his legs, and sniff his crotch.”

Diaz, who turned 37 back in April, fell to 20-13 with a unanimous decision loss to top contender Leon Edwards at UFC 263 back in June 2021. It was the second straight loss for The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 5 champ, who’s now dropped three of his last four.

The 28 year-old Chimaev improved his undefeated record to 11-0 by outlasting former title challenger Gilbert Burns in their “Fight of the Night” war at UFC 273 last April. The victory over “Durinho” was enough to land “Borz” at No. 3 in the official welterweight rankings.

“That was supposed to be his coming out party and it didn’t go according to plan,” Masvidal said. “A lot of people felt Gilbert won that fight — a lot of people still think Gilbert won that fight. I think Khamzat probably wins, but I can see Nate putting him away in rounds four or five because Khamzat doesn’t have that gas tank. He doesn’t have that experience, and I think he gets too in the moment where he’s wasting energy doing stupid shit. Nate is going to conserve all of that energy and get in his face when it counts. I think Khamzat should win, but I won’t be surprised if Nate stops his ass.”

We’ll find out in roughly one month.

Dana White questioned the official explanation for Jake Paul’s latest fight cancellation.

Last week Jake Paul saw his scheduled debut at the historic Madison Square Garden go down in flames when his promotion company, MVP, called off his fight with Hasim Rahman Jr.

In a press release MVP claimed they were forced to cancel the fight after Rahman told Paul’s team that he had no intention of weighing in at the agreed upon limit of 200 lbs. MVP further claimed that it had offered a weight limit increase up to 205 lbs, but that Rahman claimed he would weigh in at 215 lbs instead.

UFC President Dana White, who is no friend of Paul’s, didn’t buy that official explanation. Instead, White claimed that Paul cancelled the event due to poor ticket sales.

“I think they sold under a million dollars in tickets and it cost $500,000 to turn the f—ng lights on at MSG,” claimed White earlier this week. “That’s what I think. Not to mention the fact that hotel rooms in New York and transportation and everything else is very expensive.”

MMA Fighting reached out to Madison Square Garden to ask if there was any validity to White’s claim. According to the venue, White is wrong in his assessment of what went down.

“To be clear, sales were strong heading into fight week — the cancellation was not based on ticket sales,” said the MSG representative. “This fight was projected to be in the top 10 of highest grossing boxing events at MSG in the past 15 years.”

The MSG spokesperson added that the venue is eager to work with Paul again, despite this cancellation.

“MVP has been great partners and we’re looking forward to working with them again soon.”

When White touted his conspiracy theory on the fight cancellation he also took a dig at Paul’s business partner Nakisa Bidarian (a former chief financial officer for the UFC).

“I will say this: just because you’re an accountant here, doesn’t mean you know what the f—k goes on here, and doesn’t mean you can run a fight promotion company,” said White — referring to Bidarian.

Bidarian clapped back at White, stating that the Paul vs. Rahman event had already sold more tickets than Ryan Garcia’s latest fight at LA’s Staples Center and that his event was tracking to be one of the top-ten gates at MSG since 2005.