Diego Sanchez bloodied and battered in BKFC debut, suffers fourth round stoppage loss

UFC legend Diego Sanchez had a rough night at BKFC KnuckleMania 3 when he faced former WBA Middleweight World Champion Austin Trout.

Fighting at the Tingley Coliseum in front of a hometown audience in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Ultimate Fighter Season 1 alumni got bloodied and battered in a bare knuckle battle. The Austin Trout and Diego Sanchez match was stopped at 1:44 of the fourth round by way of a doctor stoppage due to how severely Sanchez was cut.

See below for highlights of this match:

Diego Sanchez vs Austin Trout

In 2005, Diego Sanchez became the season 1 winner of The Ultimate Fighter. He was a promising prospect with explosive grappling and dangerous submission skills. The Nightmare’ earned a reputation for his incredibly entertaining bouts against fighters such as Karo Parisyan and Nick Diaz. The Albuquerque-born fighter would be a one-time title contender suffering a fifth-round TKO loss via doctors stoppage at the hands of lightweight king BJ Penn.

Sanchez was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame in 2019 due to his war against Clay Guida. The 41-year-old fighter was cut from the UFC in 2020 after a loss to Jake Matthews. Next, he would lose to Kevin Lee, before finding his way to BKFC.

Austin Trout was a standout middleweight boxer. He held the WBA light middleweight title, among others, and had notable wins over athletes such as Miguel Cotto. The US-born boxer would not suffer a loss until 2013 when he faced Canelo Álvarez for the WBC and vacant The Ring light middleweight titles. Overall, Trout has a professional boxing record of 36-5 and was still an active fighter with two wins in 2020.