Paulo Thiago and Diego Sanchez set for UFC 121 bout in October
UFC welterweights Diego Sanchez and Paulo Thiago will square off at UFC 121, which takes place October 23rd at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. The headlining bout for the evening is a UFC heavyweight title bout between Cain Velasquez and champion Brock Lesnar.
Both Sanchez and Thiago are coming off losses. Sanchez dropped a bout against John Hathaway, who outstruck the Mexican-American welterweight. Sanchez was unable to take the fight to the ground and work his punches and elbows which he does so well. With no ground and pound and submission work to fall back on, Sanchez would be forced to stand and get battered for most of the fight against Hathaway.
Thiago was defeated by Martin Kampmann in his last outing in the UFC Octagon. The Brazilian was handled for much of the fight on the ground as was not able to land solid strikes on his Danish opponent, although Thiago tried hard to whale some big shots at Kampmann. The money shot never landed and Thiago, although highly successful in past bouts, was defeated by decision to Kampmann.
This is not an easy fight to call. If Sanchez can get things to the ground he has a chance to win via ground and pound decision. Thiago however has the better standup and with the force he throws punches, he could potentially catch Sanchez. Although Sanchez has never been KO’d, there’s probably a good chance that if Thiago lands clean on anyone at welterweight, they can go out.
Although they both were defeated in their last outings, I think Thiago looked the better of the two. Much of Sanchez’s loss had to do with how impressive Hathaway looked, but going into this fight at UFC 121, I feel Thiago will still have some more momentum coming in and greater confidence. Sanchez had a crushing loss to BJ Penn and has been defeated by Hathaway. But although Thiago dropped a decision to Kampmann, the Brazilian still has had two spectacular finishes over tough welterweights. He choked out Mike Swick and knocked out the number one contender in the division–Josh Koscheck.
Thiago by decision.
Brazil Series – Paulo Thiago – Highlight [HELLO JAPAN] from Hello Japan on Vimeo.
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