Diego Sanchez vs. Michel Pereira was an odd fight. There’s no way around saying that.
The two fighters met in a welterweight bout at the UFC Rio Rancho event on Saturday night (February 15, 2020) from the that aired live on ESPN’s streaming service, ESPN+. In the pre-fight introductions, Sanchez was acting like a rooster.
He was doing rolling kicks, retreating then running to attack. Throughout, Pereira was picking him apart with a tactical approach that was likely good enough for a decision win. In the third round, everything changed as Sanchez was down and got kneed in the head, which busted him open. Sanchez couldn’t continue because he couldn’t see out of his right eye due to the blood. The fight was stopped and Sanchez got the DQ win.
Peep the highlights of the fight courtesy of the UFC’s official Twitter account:
Pereira was 3-1-1 in his last five heading into this fight. After ripping off three straight wins with two of them under the Road FC banner, he made his UFC debut with a first-round KO win over Danny Roberts in May 2019. In his previous fight, he lost to Triastan Connelly by decision in September 2019.
Sanchez, who is a UFC Veteran, recently got back in the headlines by losing to Michael Chiesa by decision at the UFC 239 pay-per-view event from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.Before this, he ripped off two straight wins over Craig White and Mickey Gall. In his fight against Gall that took place at the UFC 235 pay-per-view (PPV) event, the second round saw him mount Gall and pour on a beating that resulted in Sanchez picked up the TKO win.
UFC Rio Rancho Results: Corey Anderson vs. Jan Błachowicz, Diego Sanchez vs. Michel Pereira
MMA News is providing ongoing coverage of UFC Rio Rancho. We’ve got you covered with live results, video highlights, and post-fight tidbits.
