David Taylor reacts as Diego Lopes weighs in for debut in UFC 314 against Alexander Volkanovski

David Taylor recently cheered for the Brazilian MMA player Diego Lopes da Silva. The featherweight MMA player will be competing at the UFC 314 against former UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski from Australia.

Lopes and Volkanovski would be competing for the vacant featherweight title. While the Australian is the top favorite for the title, it wouldn't be fair to underestimate Lopes.

When the Brazilian MMA player weighed in for his upcoming bout, Taylor shared the video of the same. He also dropped a 2-word reaction, writing,

"Let's go @diegolopesmma"

Screengrab of David Taylor's message for Diego Lopes da Silva [Image Source : David Taylor's Instagram]

Taylor has been extremely supportive of Lopes since a long time. The UFC featherweight champion contender had even made a visit to the training center of the Oklahoma State Cowboys in January 2025.

David Taylor had joined the Oklahoma State Cowboys as their head coach in mid 2024. Having quit international wrestling after clinching a bronze medal at the 2024 World Championships, Taylor recently led the Cowboys to their best finish since 2021 at the NCAA Championships, where they placed third overall, with a grand total of 102.5 points.

---

David Taylor talks about the growth of the Oklahoma State Cowboys

In Picture: David Taylor in action at the NCAA Championships 2025 [Image Source: Getty]

David Taylor has been pretty impressive as the head coach of the Oklahoma State Cowboys, improving their performance by leaps and bounds. The former Olympic champion talked about a variety of topics pertaining to the team.

In his conversation with FloWrestling, Taylor shared about his experience as the head coach of the Oklahoma State Cowboys. In his words,

“It's new challenge, it's fun. It's been great to build relationships with the guys we have on the team and we're just trying to get a little better." [0:09 onwards]

In another conversation with the YouTube channel Pistols Firing, Taylor opened up about the transformation in the mindset of the Cowboys.

“We talked about the beginning of the year and throughout the year, just like resetting your expectations. I think that's just what we did as a program and I think it's just constantly reminding, like, 'Hey there's a better way to do things; there's a bigger picture'. Make sure we're not selling ourselves short,” he said. [0:44 onwards]

David Taylor replaced John Smith as the head coach of the Oklahoma State Cowboys in May 2024. The 34-year-old has been extremely successful, both as an Olympic wrestler, and subsequently the head coach of the Oklahoma State Cowboys.