Will Diego Sanchez again taste victory? Comment below. Photo: Josh Hedges.
UFC Live on Versus 3 will be broadcast across the United States in 3D this Thursday evening.
In Brazil, watching first-rate fighters in action in high definition should be enough, as both Brazil’s Combate and Combate HD channels will broadcast the card live from Louisville, Kentucky live starting at 11pm Brazilian time.
In the evening’s main event, Diego Sanchez, the winner of the inaugural season of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) reality show faces off with Denmark’s Martin Kampmann. Now for on the undercard, Brazilians Thiago Tavares and Rousimar “Toquinho” Palhares face off against Americans Shane Roller and Dave Branch, respectively.
At twenty-nine years of age, Diego “The Nightmare” Sanchez has 11 wins in 15 UFC fights. Besides his respentable record, Sanchez boasts the first title of the Ultimate Fighter reality show, having beaten Kenny Florian by knockout in 2005. Furthermore, Sanchez, who has fought in three different divisions in the UFC (middleweight, welterweight and lightweight), once challenged BJ Penn for the lightweight belt – Sanchez lost a bloody and dramatic battle by TKO in 2009.
Coming off a win over Paulo Thiago, Sanchez says he has “reinvented” himself. He credits his new phase in training to highly-accomplished coach Greg Jackson, trainer of Georges Saint-Pierre and Jon Jones.
“Everything has changed. Can you imagine what I’m talking about? I left San Diego and returned to Albuquerque, from the city to the mountains. I restructured my entire life. I proved it my last fight and I intend to prove it again. I’m in excellent physical shape and focused. Training has been excellent, and I owe it to Greg and the team training here,” states Sanchez.
His opponent will be Martin Kampmann, who, coincidentally or not, also beat Paulo Thiago in 2010. At twenty-eight years of age and with a UFC record of 8 wins and 3 losses in the UFC, the fighter is coming off a loss to Jake Shields and considers this fight to be a chance to show what he can do.
“Sometimes we don’t meet our own expectations. That’s exactly what happened against Shields. I know I made some mistakes in that fight, I just hope I corrected them so I can return to the octagon even stronger,” explained the Dane, going on to give his assessment of the odds on the betting lines being in his favor: “These odds, numbers and favorites don’t help when you’re in there.”
However young he may be (26), Brazil’s Thiago Tavares is far from being an unexperienced fighter. Even before making his winning debut at UFC Fight Night 9, Thiago had already amassed a record of 16 wins and 0 losses in events in Brazil, the USA and in Europe. In 2007, he made his UFC debut against Japan’s Naoyuki Kotani and, after three rounds, was declared the winner by unanimous decision.
Since then Thiago has had nine fights, racking up a record of 5 wins, 3 losses and 1 draw and now comes off a submission win over Pat Audinwood at UFC 119 last September. Now, against highly-touted wrestler Shane Roller, Thiago is confident.
“Shane Roller is a great fighter, he’s coming off a great win over Jamie Varner. It will be a great fight, I’m going for the knockout. And he knows it,” explained the Brazilian.
Brazil’s Rousimar “Toquinho” Palhares was once touted as the “man who can overcome Anderson Silva” after making quite an impression on his promotional debut, easily brushing aside the seasoned Ivan Salverry with a first-round armbar. The win made it plain that the Murilo Bustamante (BTT) black belt wasn’t playing around in the UFC and had his submission game up to date.
However, the acclaim was perhaps premature, as Toquinho failed in his bid to overcome former two-division Pride FC champion Dan Henderson, dropping a unanimous decision. Since then Toquinho has had four fights, winning three and losing the last by technical knockout to Nate Marquardt at UFC Fight Night 22.
Check out the complete card:
UFC Live On Versus
Diego Sanchez vs. Martin Kampmann
CB Dollaway vs. Mark Munoz
Alessio Sakara vs. Chris Weidman
Brian Bowles vs. Damacio Page
Joe Stevenson vs. Danny Castillo
Preliminaries (not on live broadcast)
Steve Cantwell vs. Cyrille Diabate
Thiago Tavares vs. Shane Roller
Takeya Mizugaki vs. Reuben Duran
Rob Kimmons vs. Dongi Yang
Rousimar Palhares vs. Dave Branch
Igor Pokrajac vs. Todd Brown