Diego Sanchez welterweight return targeted for UFC 114 against John Hathaway
by Jesse Holland on Feb 2, 2010 11:37 PM EST
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He's back.
After coming up short against BJ Penn in his Dec. 12 bid for the 155-pound crown, Diego Sanchez (21-3) will make his return to the welterweight division opposite John Hathaway at the upcoming UFC 114 pay-per-view from the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Saturday, May 29.
The "Nightmare" tweeted the good news earlier today.
After capturing the first ever Ultimate Fighter (TUF) Championship in April 2005, Sanchez went on to win his next five fights in the crowded 170-pound division. Unfortunately his former TUF nemesis, Josh Koscheck, derailed his title aspirations with a unanimous decision win in a bizarre battle of striking at UFC 69: "Shootout."
Sanchez would drop two straight when "Kos" buddy Jon Fitch outworked him en route to a unanimous decision victory at UFC 76: "Knockout" just a few months later. Despite two more wins as a welterweight, "Nightmare" decided his frame would be better served by dropping down to the land of the lightweights.
The move seemed to pay off, as he went 2-0 against the venerable Joe Stevenson and the always-dangerous Clay Guida. Unfortunately BJ Penn was not impressed with his performance, making Sanchez pay with a grisly assault that saw the fight halted after four-plus rounds of abuse.
Refusing to play gatekeeper, Sanchez is back to the division he called home for most of his career.
But don't expect a warm welcome from the talented Brit.
Hathaway has been unstoppable through twelve fights. After spot-welding his elbows to the face of Tom Egan in his Octagon debut, "The Hitman" outpointed Ricky Story and Paul Taylor in the mid-to-latter part of 2009.
The six-foot-two fight phenom is considered one of the brighter prospects in the welterweight class and could vault himself into the upper tier of his division with a convincing win over Sanchez.
This has "Fight of the Night" written all over it.
UFC 114 will feature the long overdue light heavyweight grudge match between bitter rivals and former TUF 10 coaches "Suga'" Rashad Evans and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson. Also penciled in for the main card is a lightweight scrap between Efrain "Hencho en Mexico" Escudero and Cole "Magrinho" Miller.
Keep it locked in to MMAmania for future updates to this still-developing fight card.
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Hathaway has been unstoppable through twelve fights. After spot-welding his elbows to the face of Tom Egan in his Octagon debut, “The Hitman” outpointed Ricky Story and John Hathaway in the mid-to-latter part of 2009.
Paul taylor
Thank you
for saving me from my own awfulness
It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail.
by Jesse Holland on Feb 3, 2010 12:18 AM EST up reply actions
***Fight announcement***
UFC 155
Tyson Griffin vs. Evan Dunham. Training partners collide!
you mean UFC 114?
Fedor played Russian Roulette with a fully loaded gun and won.
AMERICA.....FUCK YEAH
I wish Hathaway well of this
But I doubt he gets past Sanchez.
If he does in impressive fashion he’d probably only be one fight removed from a title shot.
Which is.. sort of ridiculous now that I’ve said it.
Shogun lost a close decision! Everyone get crazy!
I am so underwhelmed by this fight. Seriously they couldn't book him against anyone else?
Hathaway is too young in his career. This is too high a step up. He needs to fight the paul taylors of the world before going against sanchez. Oh well way to ruin another prospect.
by NNR (formerly NameNotRequired) on Feb 3, 2010 12:11 AM EST up reply actions
I dont understand how Joe silva has a job!
I have no desire to see such a promising young prospect g n p’-d into oblivion!
let Hathaway beat on marcus Davis!|
I like Hathaway
Very good wrestler for a Brit and at 6’2 he looks good a WW. But I dunno do I agree that Diego is too much for him yet. I know he’s gonna be a huge UD and I would be surprised if he beats Diego, but a loss to Diego isn’t too damaging I think. Gonna be a class fight
And since when is Cole and Efrain rematching? Did I miss that thread?
its just a typo that they refuse to change
someone pointed it out in another thread and i guess its still there… it should be Dan Lauzon instead of Cole Miller..
and while we’re at it, Fitch beat Deigo by Split Decision
"You can deal with UFC, I know that they have flexible contract system. All these talks about "strict" contract terms with signing with UFC, come ONLY from Vadim Finkelstein, who wants to push his owns business projects through Fedor's fights" -- Aleksander Emelianenko
ddint Dan Lauzon and Cole Miller just fight
Fedor played Russian Roulette with a fully loaded gun and won.
AMERICA.....FUCK YEAH
oohhh. I finally read it right
Fedor played Russian Roulette with a fully loaded gun and won.
AMERICA.....FUCK YEAH
apparently it's an error that they want to stay and error for some reason
I replied in this thread this morning asking about the Cole/Efrain match and it’s now been deleted. It was the 2nd post, it contained nothing offensive in anyway, yet they still deleted the post?
What are they thinking that if they delete my post maybe no one else would notice? Yeah, that might work if the author/deleter was smart enough to make the correction after deleting the comment.
Nice job being a douche Jesse.
So funny that he jumped right back up to 170
I had a feeling he might do this.
I think he might even end up going to strikeforce, just so he can satisfy his ego and be champion already.
He is a good fighter, but stuck, and will never be champion in the ufc.
by MMA-Supplements on Feb 3, 2010 12:43 AM EST reply actions
I think he's patient still.
He was thrown under the bus by the UFC back in ‘06 when he clearly was the #1 contender but he went out in every interview and stated that he was going to be patient and leave it into the hands of the UFC, had he pushed them just a little bit he probably would have gotten what he deserved but he didn’t and ended up fighting the lower ranked Kos
fresh like uhh.
and how did that work out?
L
worbanizer
by daniel worby on Feb 3, 2010 8:25 AM EST via mobile up reply actions
This one seems to be a gimme for Diego...
Though I know the old cliche “This is MMA, anythin’ can happen”….Yeah right…
Whatever the fuck you do in life, echoes in eternity! <----slightly edited
-Maximus[Gladiator]
....
Great fight. I want to see the British fighters pushed to see who is for real.
WANDY RIP Bispings going to toy with you then destroy you
I never really noticed before, Diego's deformed arms....
One really big strong looking arm and one tiny 12 year old girls arm.
"Champions are not made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them - a desire, a dream, a vision." -Muhammad Ali
Your not serious...lol
My bad joke followed by your bad ability to get a joke.
"Champions are not made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them - a desire, a dream, a vision." -Muhammad Ali
Hijacking
Ive looked everywhere on Mania to find the thread someone posted just for funny gifs? Please please, can anyone point me in the right direction? Link? Subject/Title?
Deleted for more important stuff if I understand correctly.
"Champions are not made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them - a desire, a dream, a vision." -Muhammad Ali
Oh, ok. That sucks! Was some great stuff on that thread :(
What can be more important than entertaining us fans/readers so we stick around here?
by Zlatan, My Hero on Feb 3, 2010 7:44 AM EST up reply actions
Oh, ok. That sucks! Was some great stuff on that thread :(
What can be more important than entertaining us fans/readers so we stick around here?
definitely not what i expected
Had to read this title 2x cause I figured i’d missed something. Hathaway is fun to watch and I’ll be pulling for him, but this is a weird match up. Its not as if Diego hasn’t been at this weight and is ‘testing the water’.
This proves nothing to me in Diego’s favor, even if he taps or slaps Hathaway out in 2 mins.
Think I’ll throw coin down on Hathaway just on a whim. Hope for the best.
worbanizer
by daniel worby on Feb 3, 2010 8:40 AM EST via mobile reply actions
is it juz me??
Or does the YES man look like Frank Shamrock in this Pix??
YOU CANT PLEASE EVERYBODY SO YOU MIGHT AS WELL PLEASE YOU!!!!!!!
Don't get it
Shouldn’t Diego be fighting someone with a bigger name than this? The only thing I can think is that all the bigger names already have fights and Diego pressed the UFC into fighting sooner rather than later.
Huge step up for Hathaway here
He might actually give Diego some problems, Diego has struggled against good wrestlers and Hathaway has been able to grind out some wins with superior wrestling albeit against far lesser opposition than Diego. This should be a routine win for Diego and is a pretty strange match-up as Hathaway isn’t ranked and hasn’t been given any TV time so a win over him is pretty meaningless. I expect a Diego submission win but it all depends on how he comes back after being humbled by BJ and whether or not he takes Hathaway lightly. Big opportunity for John anyway, even if he doesn’t win a good performance could make him a much bigger name in the UFC as right now he’s the forgotten man of the British talent.
"If I could change my name what would it be? Jesus"
Tito Ortiz (seriously...)
Hilarity
He dropped down in weight because he saw what Alvez did to Kos, and now moves back up in weight because he realizes he can never beat BJ and has a better chance against most WWs than BJ Penn. His striking is still a joke.
the nightmare is an exciting fighter.
I think this moving up to WW is gonna be good for him, because this is a more stacked division means better fights, but that being said I dont think he’s capable of beating some of the top contenders in WW and GSP would kill him anyway. but at least he puts on exciting fights win or lose should be good to watch in 2010.
by bubblebeejackson on Feb 4, 2010 1:55 PM EST reply actions
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