 vs
UFC
76 Knock Out
Diego Sanchez vs Jon Fitch
Saturday September 22, 2007 10PM EST
Sanchez (+100)
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The
Diego "The Nightmare" Sanchez (17-1)
versus Jon Fitch (14-2-1) fight will be the fight
of the night. In my opinion Diego Sanchez is the best young star
in the UFC. Even though people only know him as the Ultimate
Fighter winner from Season One, Diego has been fighting a
long time and been in major MMA circuits like King of the Cage.
He
won a contract with the UFC after winning putting a beat down
on Kenny Florian to become the middleweight winner for the first
season of the show. Since than Diego has dropped to welterweight
and has beaten some of the best welterweights in the UFC including
Brian
Gassaway, Nick Diaz, John
Alessio, Karo Parisyan, and Joe Riggs. His last fight
with Josh Koscheck was a poor performance and now people doubt
if he can come back. Before his loss to Josh
Koscheck, I ranked Sanchez as that #2 welterweight
in the world behind Georges St Pierre. Sanchez has all the skillsa
in the world to be the next UFC welterweight champion and he has
trained hard not to put on a performance like his last MMA fight.
He is one of the most complete fighters in the world and he will
be looking to make a statement at UFC 76. Most good fighters have
to lose to become better and Diego has learned what to do and
how to train since his first lost defeat.
Jon
Fitch on the other hand is no joke as he is one well rounded fighter.
Jon Fitch (14-2-1) is tough but he hasn’t fought top level
opponents in MMA yet or fought at the UFC level. The one main
concern is that he trains at the American Kickboxing Academy which
is the same place that Josh Koscheck trains at. He is incredibly
strong and wrestled under the tutelage of Tom Erikson and his
wrestling skills are very very good. Fitch has fought and won
his last 7 UFC events beating Roan Carneiro, Luigi
Fioravanti, Kuniyoshi
Hironaka, Thiago Alves, Josh Burkman and Brock Larson.
His ability to beat very talent fighters like Thiago Alves and
Brock Larson makes Fitch very dangerous. Put it this way, I think
Fitch can beat Matt Hughes right about now.
If
Fitch tries to take Sanchez, Diego will easily reverse and apply
his ground game and will tap him out with ease as he trains at
one of the best submission fighting camps in the world with Greg
Jackson. Fitch’s game plan will be stand back and avoid
Diego’s shoot attempts but don’t underestimate Diego’s
ability to KO Fitch.
Bottom
Line: Fitch has the edge on power, strength and striking
abilities but Sanchez is a better grappler and is tenacious fighter.
Sanchez has something to prove after putting on a bad performance
in his last fight. Fitch is going into the fight as a favorite
but Diego is a really game fighter and will find a way to win.
He just has that certain quality about his fight game that will
make him be able to frustrate Fitch.
Look
for a hard fought decision by Sanchez to get back into the welterweight
title picture.
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