Diego Sanchez's 5 greatest UFC fights

#2 Karo Parisyan – UFC Fight Night 6 – August 17th, 2006

Sanchez's fight with Karo Parisyan was absolutely packed with action

If Sanchez’s classic fight with Nick Diaz was all about his grappling, and his brawl with Martin Kampmann almost completely a striking match, then this 2006 war with Karo Parisyan – winner of numerous Fight of the Year awards – simply had it all. At the time, both men were gunning for a shot at the UFC Welterweight title – but of course, only one could come out on top.

After 15 minutes of pure action, it turned out that ‘the one’ was ‘The Nightmare’. He came flying out of the blocks in the first round, stunning Parisyan with a hard uppercut that opened a gash under his eye before taking him down to deliver punishment from a back mount. For a moment it looked like the fight was over – but ‘The Heat’ was able to survive, and even hit an amazing judo throw on Sanchez later in the round.

The action continued in the second round, with both men going back-and-forth in both striking and grappling exchanges; Parisyan managed a slam takedown at one point only for Sanchez to reverse the Armenian judoka and take a dominant position of his own. Essentially, it was getting hard to decide exactly who was on top in the fight.

The third round, though, left no doubt. Parisyan came out strongly, but after being reversed a couple of times again, it suddenly became clear that the pace that Sanchez was willing to push was becoming too much for ‘The Heat’. Diego eventually landed a huge knee that visibly sent one of Parisyan’s teeth flying, and from there, he ended the fight by punishing him with punches and elbows from inside the guard – looking just as fresh as he’d done at the beginning of the fight.

Even by Sanchez’s standards this remains a phenomenal fight over a decade later, and stands as a testament of how brilliant he was in his early years in the UFC. Parisyan was his toughest test to that point – and ‘The Nightmare’ passed it with flying colors while entertaining the fans like no other, too.