“The Ultimate Fighter 1” winner Diego Sanchez (17-2 MMA, 6-2 UFC) will look to reclaim his contender status in the UFC’s stacked welterweight division when he takes on Roan Carneiro (12-6 MMA, 2-1 UFC) at UFC 82 — an event that takes place March 1 at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.
Sanchez announced that the fight has been booked with a recent MySpace bulletin. MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) left a message with Sanchez’s new management team but hasn’t yet received confirmation of the bout.
Sanchez recently lost back-to-back fights after winning his first 17 professional bouts. The losses to Josh Koscheck and Jon Fitch had the 26-year-old fighter considering a move to 155 lbs., but earlier this month, his management team told MMAjunkie.com that Sanchez had ultimately ruled against it.
Sanchez hasn’t competed since a September decision loss to Fitch — a fight he took five months after his loss to Koscheck at UFC 69. Sanchez entered the April fight with a serious staph infection. In fact, he was so sick and the illness had doctors so confused that Sanchez reportedly contemplated retirement on the eve of the fight.
His comeback begins with Carneiro, a 29-year-old Brazilian fighter who scored an impressive second-round TKO of veteran Tony DeSouza at last month’s UFC 79 event.
Carneiro, who officially joined American Top Team last week, made his UFC debut with a unanimous-decision win over “The Ultimate Fighter 4” cast member Rich Clementi at UFC Fight Night 9. He then dropped a second-round submission (via rear-naked choke) to Fitch at UFC Fight Night 10 this past June.
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