Diego Sanchez welcomed UFC debutant Marcin held to the Octagon on Saturday at UFC Fight Night 98 last night and handed the Polish fighter a loss via unanimous decision loss in the process. There was a lot of hype surrounding Held in the lead up to his debut but Diego Sanchez took no notice and got himself back in the win column after a TKO loss at UFC 200.
Sanchez (27-9 MMA, 16-9 UFC) smothered Held (22-5 MMA, 0-1 UFC) on the canvas for the majority of the fight, after overcoming a tough first round. Held started the fight the more positive having early success pressuring his opponent and landing strikes. The Pole threatened with a standing guillotine choke but Sanchez showed great takedown defence and creativity running along the cage and spinning free of the submission.
During the second round the submission specialist shot for one of his signature leg locks this however backfired as ‘The Nightmare’ gained top position and began punishing the UFC rookie. The relentless pressure and high tempo from Sanchez seemingly drained Held who had multiple failed submissions and takedown attempts finding himself on the bottom once more.
The 34 year old ended the fight on a high delivering a number of strikes from top control, the veteran’s superb cardio and pressure seemingly made the difference with the judges scoring the fight 29-28, 29-28 and 29-27 in favour of Sanchez.
This fight was Sanchez’s 25th in the Octagon and plans to make another run at the Lightweight title.
“I was very confident,” he said. “We’re going to make a run for it”.
