"He's just a fu***** junkyard dog that hangs in there" - John McCarthy lauds Diego Sanchez for competitive performance against Kevin Lee

Former UFC referee 'Big' John McCarthy recently offered his take on Diego Sanchez's performance against Kevin Lee at Eagle FC's latest event. McCarthy argued that Sanchez had proved his worth as a fighter with a decisive performance against Lee, even though he was unsuccessful.

The fight headlined the action on the Eagle FC 46 fight card. The event was hosted at the FLXCast Arena in Miami, Florida.

Sanchez suffered a unanimous decision loss at the hands of 'The Motown Phenom'. However, while in conversation with Josh Thomson on the Weighing In podcast, John McCarthy went on to hail Sanchez for his display of heart.

"[Diego Sanchez] put up a good fight, you know. [Kevin Lee] won, no doubt about it. But Diego showed why he is the f***ing guy that, you know, won the first ultimate fighter, has been there for so long, is never an easy out for anyone. He's just a f***ing junkyard dog that just hangs in there. Tough as hell. There's never any quit in him and yeah he got the loss, Kevin gets the win, good for Kevin."

Check out John McCarthy's take on Diego Sanchez's performance below:

McCarthy asserted that fans had errantly written Sanchez off ahead of the fight. He noted that Sanchez had not been dominated by Lee during the fight in any sense. He also admitted that 'Nightmare' had his moments on the ground and during certain striking exchanges.

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Diego Sanchez claims he could have won if the fight went to a fourth round

In the aftermath of his Eagle FC 46 loss, Diego Sanchez took to social media to reflect on his setback inside the cage. In the post, the former UFC fighter declared that he could have finished Lee had the fight gone into a fourth frame.

He further admitted that he was counting on Eagle FC to set up yet another main event clash between him and Lee, this time set for five rounds.

"Was not in my peak condition due to circumstances of timeline for this fight but still felt if there was a fourth round I would have finished the fight. Can’t wait to get healthy and come back and rematch [Kevin Lee] in a main event 5 rounder! [Eagle FC] with some wrestling training [Khabib Nurmagomedov]"