Welterweights
Michael Chiesa (15-4) vs. Diego Sanchez (29-11)Advertisement
Sanchez is somehow riding a two-fight winning streak in 2019. The last man standing from the first season of “The Ultimate Fighter,” Sanchez has given UFC fans a number of outstanding wars over the years, but that has manifested itself in a tough and depressing decline. Between 2010 and 2016, Sanchez managed a few wins but mostly via undeserved decisions, and at UFC 200, his legendary chin finally cracked at the hands of Joe Lauzon. Sanchez rebounded with a wrestling-heavy win over Marcin Held, but 2017 turned into a particularly rough year, with Sanchez getting absolutely melted by Al Iaquinta and Matt Brown, the latter via a vicious elbow upside the skull. However, as the Held fight showed, Sanchez can still wrestle, and a funny thing happened in 2018: He actually realized it. Admittedly, he got two perfect opponents in Craig White and Mickey Gall, but Sanchez finally relied on his strength rather than his fading durability and earned two one-sided wins; he even scored his first finish since 2008 with a stoppage of Gall in March. Sanchez surprisingly still has something to give, and to the UFC’s credit, it has matched him with another grappler, even if Chiesa is a much tougher ask.
It has always been a shame that Chiesa’s run on “The Ultimate Fighter” came just as the series was fading into irrelevance, as with more viewers, the Washington native would have been a star for life. Chiesa fought on the one live season of the show and used the death of his father early in the process as motivation. He made an upset run through the house on his way to choking out Iaquinta and winning a contract at the finale. Since then, Chiesa has been surprisingly successful despite a one-dimensional game based around submissions and little else. Chiesa can probably be classified as outright bad on the feet, particularly on defense, but if he can tap grapplers as talented as Beneil Dariush, those skills may not be necessary. Losses to Kevin Lee and Anthony Pettis finally prompted Chiesa to move to welterweight, and one fight in, results are solid, as Chiesa managed to post a submission win over Carlos Condit in 2018. Another faded name awaits Chiesa here, but Sanchez might be surprisingly willing to meet “Maverick” on his own terms.
Chiesa probably does not have the power to knock out Sanchez, shot as the chin may be, so this is going to go exactly how one of these two men has won their recent fights: Chiesa winning by submission or Sanchez controlling his way to a decision or a ground-and-pound stoppage. While Chiesa is a talented submission artist, that simply has not been the way to beat Sanchez, who has had enough strength and veteran craft to neutralize anyone who tries to test him in that realm. If anyone can pull it off, it is Chiesa, but the pick is Sanchez via decision.
Next Fights » ESPN Prelims
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