Diego Sanchez’s retirement fight will be against another legendary UFC fighter at the tail-end of his career, Donald Cerrone, which the showdown having being earmarked for an upcoming event on May 8th.
By that time it’ll have been 16 years since Sanchez made his first Octagon appearance, making an instant impact by defeating Kenny Florian to become the first ever winner of the Ultimate Fighter reality show.
Since then he’s gone on to be part of the fabric of the UFC, with his unrivaled intensity and warrior spirit leading to numerous classic fights over the years.
Sanchez has taken an incredible amount of punishment though and after some underwhelming performances of late, the 39-year-old announced recently that he was set to hang up his gloves after one last big fight.
With that in mind, Cerrone appears to be a fitting final fight for him as he too has been a long-time UFC stalwart and fan-favorite who has left it all in the Octagon over the past decade, racking up the most fights in the promotions history along the way (tied at 36 with Jim Miller).
Like Sanchez, Cerrone appeared to be a fighter who was going to have a hard time walking away from the sport he’d devoted his life too, but at 37, ‘Cowboy’ has openly talked about retirement in recent times after slumping to five fights without a win.
Adding even more spice to the occasion will be the fact that both Sanchez and Cerrone are former long-time training partners at the Jackson-Wink gym, though both have separately split from their in recent years.
