Is There Anything Left To Prove For Diego Sanchez?
Last night (Sat., June 7, 2014) UFC lightweight fan favorite Diego Sanchez won a highly controversial judges’ decision over fellow The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) winner Ross Pearson at UFC Fight Night 42 from his hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Sanchez’ gameplan was to use his wrestling to take respected striker Pearson to the ground, but when the bright lights and emotions of fighting in front of his friends and family sunk in, that solid strategy went out the window early on.
Sanchez spent some of the fight stalking Pearson, but he didn’t do much with it. His strikes were largely inaccurate, while Pearson landed the more significant shots at a higher clip. In fact, “Real Deal” fought a decent bout, avoiding all of “The Nightmare’s” precious few takedown attempts and utilizing excellent counter shots. However, he didn’t do enough to finish the fight, and there is always the potential to get robbed when you leave your fate up to the judges.
It happened, and became a very important victory for Sanchez as he nears the end of his storied UFC career. However, after all the buzz and congratulations faded, did the debatable (read: foolish) decision really do anything aside from masking the deficiencies Sanchez now has in his game?
He had food poisoning to blame for his one-sided UFC 171 loss to Myles Jury, but there are no excuses to fall back on for this defeat. It was only his second win in his last five fights, and the other one was another perceived robbery over Takanori Gomi at UFC on Fuel TV 8.
He’ll never shy away from a war, and his fights have been some of the most exciting the UFC has ever seen. But they’ve added up over the years, and his last two bouts were nothing but a shell of his classics against Clay Guida, Martin Kampmann, and Gilbert Melendez.
Sanchez has been mainly reduced to a plodding fighter who misses a lot of strikes and rarely, if ever, uses his once-dangerous wrestling and submission games. It’s clear that his skills are rapidly diminishing with age and injuries, and that eventually happens to every fighter.
Top-level lightweights simply know what’s coming. And they haven’t had much of a problem with “The Nightmare” if he isn’t allowed to incite one of his infamous slugfests.
Should Sanchez retire? Probably, but given his warrior spirit and love for fighting, he won’t. He wants to fight Nate Diaz on the upcoming November card in Mexico City. However, it’s obvious that he doesn’t deserve a fight with the younger Diaz, who was ranked No. 5 before being pulled from the UFC list for inactivity.
That’s not to say Sanchez doesn’t deserve a ton of credit for his contribution to the UFC; he definitely does. He made waves as the first Ultimate Fighter, and he delivered on his potential with a career full of rousing bouts. He’ll go down as a UFC legend and most likely enjoy a solid front office position with the company.
Sadly, his bouts are becoming a lot less exciting than they once were, and his health is on the line. There’s simply nothing left to prove for Sanchez, so there’s not much reason to continue putting on lackluster performances.
We’ll most likely witness him step into the Octagon again. But MMA fans will remember Diego Sanchez for his intense battles, not the controversial judging decisions that have plagued him towards the end of his career.
Photo: Joe Camporeale for USA TODAY Sports
