Diego Sanchez has a "dream."
The artist formerly known as "The Nightmare" wants to win a title while fighting under the UFC banner. Because he failed to do so in his venture down in the lightweight division, he's returned to welterweight in an attempt to do so there.
Wins over Paulo Thiago and Martin Kampmann earned him a shot at Matt Hughes, which was ultimately negated by a broken hand Sanchez suffered in training. It may have been a bit of a blessing in disguise, though.
That's because it opened up his schedule for a future fight booking against Jake Ellenberger, which is exactly the route the UFC has decided to go. According to Heavy.com, the two have agreed to a bout for sometime in early 2012, though a date and location are still unknown at this time, likely because of Sanchez still needing a bit of time to heal his hand.
Ellenberger has been spending his days without a date calling out UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre. "The Juggernaut" claims he's got the style to finally dethrone the king of the 170-pound mountain.
That may be so. In fact, "Rush" believes he'll eventually tango with the rising contender. But first, Ellenberger will have to get through Sanchez and he thinks he'll do exactly that.
Here's what he told Tatame.com:
"He's a great name, he's fought a lot of great fighters. I would love to fight Diego. He brings a lot of good tools to the table -- but he won't beat me."
There were rumors aplenty regarding when exactly this bout will take place, with UFC on Fox 2 in Chicago on Jan. 28 a leading candidate. But Malki Kawa, Sanchez's manager, dispelled those rumors on Twitter and the date and location remains uncertain.
But it does look like this welterweight war is going down early next year, Maniacs. Who do you like?
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