According to his myspage blog, former Ultimate Fighter winner Diego Sanchez could be dropping down to compete in the lightweight division.
Sanchez started out his UFC career as a middleweight on the first season of “The Ultimate Fighter.” After the show he dropped down to a more natural weight, and has fought in the UFC’s stacked welterweight division ever since.
Sanchez has previously told MMA Fighting that his ideal weight class would be 165 pounds, as he felt 155 pounds would be too much weight to cut. It looks like Diego has found the motivation he needs to cut that extra 10 pounds.
On his blog, the fighter says, “so my account got hacked and it took a while to get it fixed, but I’m back. I’m training hard and will be dropping down to fight at 155. I will keep you all posted on the info of the fight! But I promise you all that I will do my best to win.”
Maybe Sanchez did the “MMA math” and realized he didn’t have a realistic shot of winning the welterweight title. Prior to winning back to back fights, Diego had lost to both Josh Koscheck and John Fitch.
Koscheck actually replaced an injured Sanchez and took his place at UFC 90 against Thiago Alves. Koscheck was convincingly defeated, albeit in only two weeks notice to a man who outweighed him by at least 28 pounds in the cage. Both Koscheck and Fitch were decisively defeated by George St. Pierre.
No matter how you do the math it simply didn’t add up in Diego’s favor.
Diego will be joining fellow Ultimate Fighter season 1 competitor Kenny Florian at lightweight. The two fought each other on the season finale, at middleweight, and Diego got the TKO victory via ground and pound. Florian is far from the same fighter he was during the finale, however – perhaps we’ll see a rematch down the road.
Sanchez should be very competitive in the lighter division – assuming he can make the weight. Plenty of interesting matchups will await him.
