Steve Aoki has dropped beats all over the world, but this week? He stepped into a whole new arena. The Grammy-nominated EDM artist wasn’t at a nightclub or a music festival, he was at an MMA gym! His host? The No. 2-ranked featherweight in the world and a man with dynamite in his fists, Diego Lopes. So what brought one of the world’s most energetic DJs face-to-face with a rising UFC star? Let’s just say, even Aoki didn’t see this coming.

In the caption for the post on Instagram, Aoki cheekily wrote, “Steve Aoki vs Diego Lopes was not on my 2025 bingo card”. Nevertheless, the video has left fans and other notable figures in the MMA sphere buzzing. The DJ was inside Diego Lopes’s gym, learning how to throw combinations and grapple with one of the slickest submission artists in the UFC.

Breathing heavily mid-session, Aoki shared, “So we’re here, Diego Lopes’s gym right here, training, learning a couple of things, by the GOAT Diego, good friend. So I’m happy he invited me and my team to come check it out. You know, hit some mitts and have fun.” And then he revealed something that makes MMA one of the hardest sports in the world to prepare for: the sheer physicality of the training.

Aoki explained, “Give you a little context of these UFC fighters, the cardio they’re going through, it’s insane. The stamina, it’s absolutely insane.” The former featherweight title challenger, meanwhile, was the perfect host. He teased Aoki gently, asking, “You ready for jiu-jitsu? You never tried jiu-jitsu before?” “No, I mean I love it, I love UFC, but I never did it,” Aoki admitted, wide-eyed like a fan meeting his idol.

Then came the real test: rolling. Of course, Lopes handled it like a professor. Playful but firm. Aoki, despite his inexperience, gave it a shot. And in doing so, he won something more valuable than a tap in the MMA world, respect. In the comment sections for the post, Nina Marie Daniele chimed in with, “The collab we didn’t know we needed.”

Another name that popped up? Former UFC, Strikeforce, and DREAM star and host of the iconic reality show, ‘Bully Beatdown’, Jason ‘Mayhem Miller’! He had a proposition for the EDM DJ as he wrote, “Gotta pad ya at the next EDC. Tighten the form!”

But this wasn’t just a one-off stunt. Steve Aoki and Lopes go back further than you think. They met at a concert in Guadalajara. The vibes clicked. Aoki even remixed “La Chona” for Lopes’ walkout at UFC 314. And from that moment, music and MMA merged in the most unexpected way. In a world where even Mark Zuckerberg’s trading conference rooms for rear-naked chokes, Aoki’s jump into jiu-jitsu fits right in. But it still caught fans off guard, in the best way!

So, what’s next for Diego Lopes now that he’s done with bringing another celebrity into the world of mixed martial arts? Well, the Mexican featherweight phenom is looking to make his return to the cage in Guadalajara, and he’s already got a few names in his crosshairs!

Yair Rodriguez and Movsar Evloev put on alert as Diego Lopes plots his return at Noche UFC

Diego Lopes isn’t wasting time licking his wounds from the title fight loss to Alexander Volkanovski. In fact, he’s already plotting his next move. And he’s set his sights on Yair Rodriguez and Movsar Evloev. His battleground of choice? Noche UFC in Guadalajara.

In a recent conversation with ‘Hablemos MMA’, Lopes stated, “My focus is to fight at Noche UFC in September, two names I can mention that I’d like would be the rematch against Movsar (Evloev) or a fight against Yair (Rodriguez). Either of those guys gets me close to the title.”

And there’s real history here. Evloev handed Lopes his first UFC loss back in his debut in 2023. That fight was on short notice, but Lopes made it a war, enough to earn Fight of the Night honors. Since then? The tension’s only built, especially online.

Then there’s Rodriguez. Their beef stretches way back, long before either man made it big. Sparks flew again at the UFC 314 presser, where security had to separate them. For Lopes, it’s very simple as he further shared, “Regardless of who it is, I want the fight the UFC goes, ‘Ok, win this one, and you’re fighting for the title.’ That’s the one I’m taking, no problem.”

So, will Lopes get his rematch? Or will old tensions with Rodriguez finally explode in front of a home crowd in Guadalajara? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!