Diego Sanchez's 5 greatest UFC fights

#1 Gilbert Melendez – UFC 166 – October 19th, 2013

Sanchez's wild brawl with Gilbert Melendez was a stone-cold classic

By 2013, Sanchez had seen his fair share of both wins and losses inside the UFC, and his reputation was more that of an eccentric, exciting veteran gatekeeper than a genuine title contender. So when the UFC matched him with top Lightweight contender Gilbert Melendez at UFC 166 – with a potential title shot on the line – it felt like ‘The Nightmare’ was probably doomed.

In the end though, the fans who tuned into the event learned a valuable lesson – you can never count Diego Sanchez out of any fight, even when he seems painfully outgunned.

The first round began with Sanchez charging out aggressively, surprising Melendez with a takedown before taking his back. ‘El Nino’ was able to shake Diego off, however, and within minutes, the fight resembled the Kampmann one for ‘The Nightmare’, with Sanchez coming up largely short on his punches while eating sharper, cleaner ones from the former StrikeForce champion.

Against Kampmann, Diego’s gameplan had been to draw his opponent into a brawl – and unsurprisingly, the same idea reared its head here. By the end of the first round, ‘The Nightmare’ seemed content to take a punch to give one back, and surprisingly, it seemed like Melendez was more than happy to meet him on those terms.

From there the fans in attendance were treated to some of the wildest exchanges in UFC history, as the two Latino fighters simply stood at the phone-booth range and exchanged bombs, both men landing but neither one being willing to back down an inch.

By the third round, it was clear that Diego was losing the fight – he was sporting a huge cut over his left eye, with blood pouring down his face – but he’d certainly won over the fans, who were now firmly behind him. And when he landed an uppercut during one of his wild flurries and ‘El Nino’ went down, it appeared like we were about to see an all-time huge upset. But it wasn’t to be, and instead, Melendez recovered to continue to trade bombs until the fight finally ended.

The judges scored the fight unanimously for Melendez, but in all honesty, for Sanchez that didn’t matter at all. It was ‘The Nightmare’ who came away from the fight with more publicity and his profile somehow raised back up despite the loss, and while ‘El Nino’ was indeed granted a title shot, there was no question as to who was the more popular with the fans.

At the end of 2013, it was no surprise that this fight was the unanimous choice for ‘Fight of the Year’ – 7 years later it remains a stone-cold classic and is still arguably one of the greatest fights in UFC history.