The best and worst from UFC 235: Jones vs. Smith

#3 Best: Diego keeps on ticking

Diego Sanchez rolled back the years with his stoppage of Mickey Gall

You’d probably find it hard to track down a UFC fan who doesn’t believe Diego Sanchez is one of the all-time greats of the promotion, particularly when it comes to putting on entertaining fights, but you’d also be hard pressed to find a lot of fans who believe he should still be fighting in 2019.

Last night was Sanchez’s 29th appearance in the Octagon – he debuted back in 2005, 14 years ago – and in recent times, ‘The Nightmare’ has taken some horrendous knockouts.

Last night though, he proved there’s life in the old dog yet. Faced with rising prospect Mickey Gall, Sanchez did take some punishment early on, but he survived, kept pushing forward and in the end, Gall simply couldn’t keep up with his pace.

By the time Diego gained a dominant position and began to destroy Gall with punches and elbows in the second round, it felt like 2006 all over again – and it felt great.

Sanchez is one of my three favourite fighters of all time (for those wondering, the other two are GSP and Alistair Overeem) and so as such a longtime fan, it was awesome to see him win in this way.

He’s actually now on the first 2-fight win streak he’s had since 2010/11, and assuming the UFC don’t match him with any concussive strikers next time out, it’s not inconceivable that he could make that a 3-fight run. And who would ever have expected that?