{"id":341500,"date":"2020-02-18T06:37:16","date_gmt":"2020-02-18T14:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=341500"},"modified":"2020-02-18T06:58:30","modified_gmt":"2020-02-18T14:58:30","slug":"diego-sanchez-defends-his-veteran-decision-at-ufc-rio-rancho","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/diego-sanchez-defends-his-veteran-decision-at-ufc-rio-rancho\/","title":{"rendered":"Diego Sanchez defends his \u2018veteran decision\u2018 at UFC Rio Rancho"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to Diego Sanchez, he can sleep easy at night knowing he bagged a disqualification win against Michel Pereira at UFC on ESPN+ 25.<\/p>\n

The welterweight fighters collided in the co-main event on Saturday in Rio Rancho. The bout finished early in the third round after Pereira delivered an illegal knee while Sanchez was on the mat. The referee immediately intervened and acknowledged the foul.<\/p>\n

Sanchez was given time to recover and asked if he could continue. \u201cThe Nightmare” couldn’t continue the action and was ultimately awarded the DQ victory<\/a>. The conclusion stirred some criticism as spectators believed he should have soldiered on through the fight. However, the UFC veteran says his 15-years of experience left him confident he made the right call:<\/p>\n

\u201cDid I quit? No,\u201d Sanchez told MMA Junkie<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got hit with a (expletive) serious knee to the head. I knew I was going down on the scorecards, I knew how things were rolling out. I made a smart, veteran decision because I know my face is, regardless or not of the last two minutes of the fight, my face is going to be covered in blood. The image is going to be painted on the judges. I already know. I don\u2019t have a chance of winning that fight anymore. So, did I quit? I made a (expletive) smart decision to not put myself in some real danger where I would\u2019ve been injured when that mother(expletive) hit me with an illegal shot when I was down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Going into the third round, Pereira was controlling the action and leading 20-18 on the judges\u2019 scorecards. Sanchez admitted that his opponent was able to land some damage, but believes Pereira’s lack of control is what cost him the fight outcome.<\/p>\n

\u201cI took a hard hit to the head, but I made the right decision,\u201d Sanchez said. \u201cI knew that maybe I was going down on the scorecards. I knew. But my opponent lost control. He did not have the awareness to notice that I had gone down from a shot to the ribs. That really injured me, that shot to the ribs. It broke two of my ribs completely. I went down. He did not have the awareness that I went down. He threw a fully powered shot to my mother(expletive) dome piece, that split my wig. Split my forehead. I\u2019m not your average human being. It did not knock me out, but did it damage me? Yes.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow about the blood? How about the scar that\u2019s going to be with me for the rest of my life? How about the blood that\u2019s going to impact the judges? How about all this going forward? What if I get really (expletive) hurt? I made the right decision. I don\u2019t need you guys look down here like, \u2018Oh, I might have the biggest heart in the sport but I quit because I was (expletive) scared of Pereira.\u2019 I\u2019ve been doing this longer than (expletive) anybody and I deserve a little respect. If the UFC and the MMA community and the media don\u2019t want to give it to me, I\u2019m going to go (expletive) take it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do you agree with Diego Sanchez’ comments?<\/p>\n

This article first appeared on\u00a0<\/i>BJPENN.com<\/i><\/span><\/a>\u00a0on 2\/18\/2020.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to Diego Sanchez, he can sleep easy at night knowing he bagged a disqualification win against Michel Pereira at UFC on ESPN+ 25. The welterweight fighters collided in the co-main event on Saturday in Rio Rancho. The bout finished early in the third round after Pereira delivered an illegal knee while Sanchez was on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54472,"featured_media":284675,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10174,39610],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nDiego Sanchez defends his \u2018veteran decision\u2018 at UFC Rio Rancho | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Diego Sanchez responds to criticism following his controversial disqualification victory against Michel Pereira at UFC Rio Rancho.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/diego-sanchez-defends-his-veteran-decision-at-ufc-rio-rancho\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" 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