When fans consider the season of”The Ultimate Fighter,” Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar instantly come to mind as a result of the instant classic. Therefore, its just suiting that the first ever Ultimate Fighter be the last to leave the UFC. No, I am not speaking about Forrest Griffin. The fight between Bonnar and Griffin during the TUF’s Season 1 Finale single-handedly helped deliver the UFC to the mainstream. Dana White later called it Zuffa’s”Trojan Horse”. Nonetheless, in doing this, it overshadowed the fact that Diego Sanchez was in fact the first ever Ultimate Fighter winner, having defeated Kenny Florian to take home the middleweight TUF crown earlier in the evening. With all of the former cast members on the show either retired or no longer used with the UFC, the only exclusion remains to be Sanchez. The first to be crowned remains to be the last to grace the Octagon. When the contestants were announced for”The Ultimate Fighter 1,” Sanchez was the fighter with the most hype surrounding him. Since the undefeated King of the Cage winner, he backed up that hype in the Octagon winning all four of his struggles, together with three first-round stoppages such as a submission over Florian in the Finale. Even the true main event of that card was completely overshadowed as Rich Franklin scored the biggest win of his career at the time over Ken Shamrock. For the average fight fan Sanchez dominance of this show is easily forgotten as TUF 1 seems like it was forever ago. A lot can happen over a decade, and Sanchez’s lengthy r??sum?? proves it. He has won a lot of fights and lost some, hopped branches, got sailed for marijuana, earned six”Fight of the Night” bonuses and two”Battle of the Year” (2006 Karo Parisyan, 2009 Clay Guida) honours, missing a lightweight name tip to then-champ BJ Penn, altered his nickname from the”Nightmare” into the”Fantasy” and back to the”Nightmare” again and let’s not forget about him inventing the Yes! Cartwheel, simply to mention a few. Total going to war inside the Octagon on 21 separate events amassing as 14-7 record. Based on his age and durability it was almost expected that Sanchez will be the final fighter we see within the Octagon and rightfully so. Much was said about the whole cast of the series to the scope that Dana White stated that he had been basically looking to induct the entire TUF 1 cast into the UFC Hall of fame. It has been a well documented success story deserving of fairy tale type ending. But what remains to be seen by the die hard MMA fans is… IMG_1728Will Diego Sanchez go out with a swan song of epic proportions in hopes of building upon The Ultimate Fighter Seasons 1 already cemented legacy? Diego Sanchez would tell you YES! YES! YES! Looking at Sanchez’s recent time for a fighter, it’s more unlikely that anything of importance will come out of the remaining time of his once famed career. The likely scenario and eventual end game is equal to that of the majority of the rest of the TUF 1 cast members. The consensus is that lots of the TUF 1 cast members moved out with a whimper facing exactly the same troubling realities that Sanchez currently faces a daily basis: injuries and age. Nearly all the contestants basically were forced into retirement. As fans of this UFC, let’s expect Diego Sanchez may break this tendency and go out with a bang as it is likely he won’t go out anywhere near the top. Finishing on a winning note is the ideal case scenario for”The Nightmare” at this stage in his profession. Taking a photo of Sanchez’s professional career, it is likely he will depart the UFC kicking and crying like others before him. What remains to be told is the how and if. An individual can not deny it. The writing is on the wall with no true expectation of championship ambitions in the not too distant future. Sit back and enjoy the last of the TUF 1 display. However, based on Diego’s Sanchez most recent turns of a occasions in his profession prepare for a sad ending. The dropping down in weight courses and layoff because of rehabbing injuries it’s developing a recipe for failure. Basically it won’t be a fantasy come true for the nightmare. Quoting Connor McGregor at 2013:”The guy is a has-been.” IMG_1727Sanchez is expected to confront Ricardo Lamas at a featherweight bout on November 21, 2015 at The Ultimate Fighter Latin America 2 Finale. This will be Sanchez introduction at featherweight regardless of the fact that he was the middleweight TUF 1 champion. Sanchez is expecting to have a run at championship glory despite confronting the longest layoff of his professional MMA profession (1 year 4 Months) and at 33 years old. The layoff is a result of a broken collarbone suffered in training. Many pundits credit the statement that he’s falling a weight class for a means to acquire an eventually struggle against Connor McGregor. However, lots of MMA handicappers see this because of weakness as an effort by Sanchez to remain relevant. Even though many MMA mainstream enthusiasts don’t crown Diego Sanchez since the first Ultimate Fighter, he’s out lasted all of them. Being the youngest of this TUF 1 fighters it continues to function in his advantage but he’s fighting the age old question of time. Irrespective of how durable Sanchez might be, it remains to be seen if he can pass that last test. As his admirable profession rolls on, it is clear Sanchez is no more immune from the injury bug. Still, there needs to be something said for being the last of a dying breed. That accomplishment alone is deserving of all our admiration because it has left us without a doubt that he will always remain to be the roughest of the TUF. The initial Ultimate Fighter to be crowned inside the Octagon and the last to leave.
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