A lightweight fight between veteran campaigners Diego Sanchez and Jim Miller has been signed up to take place at UFC 197 on March 5th in Las Vegas and will become the featured prelim on the Fight Pass portion of the card.
Sanchez is moving back to lightweight after just a single fight against Ricardo Lamas at featherweight which he lost by decision. Sanchez admits that cutting down another division had proven to be an ill-advised decision and so he’s hoping to get back to winning ways in a division he’s much more familiar with.
The 34 year-old Sanchez’s last fight at 155lbs was a highly controversial split decision win over Ross Pearson that the majority of observers other than the judges believed he had lost, while prior to that he suffered defeats against both Gilbert Melendez and Myles Jury.
His next opponent Miller has also been struggling to find consistently, with the 32 year-old having lost three of his four fights to Donald Cerrone, Beneil Dariush and most recently Michael Chiesa, though a few months prior to that he did pick up a split decision win over Danny Castillo.
So both fighters have seen better days and will be hoping that a win at UFC 197 can be the boost they need to get their careers on track.
Putting a high profile fight on the Fight Pass section of the prelims appears to be a new trend for 2016 by the promotion, with the likes of Dustin Poirier Vs Joe Duffy and Paul Felder Vs Daron Cruickshank already receiving the same treatment so far this year as they look to make the subscription service a more attractive proposition for fans.
