Diego Sanchez was having a tough time containing the explosive striking of Michael Pereira at UFC Rio Rancho. But, due to an illegal knee Pereira tagged the veteran with later in the fight, Sanchez emerged from the card with a win.

Round one

Sanchez came charging out of the gate and fired a cartwheel kick that may have grazed Pereira. The latter started pressing forward and began firing kicks of his own. Pereira just missed with a flying knee a couple of minutes in. Sanchez blitzed in a flurry a little bit later but nothing landed. With less than a minute left, Pereira came with another flying knee that missed.

Round two

Pereira continued to press forward in round two. Sanchez, surprisingly, didn’t come with many takedown attempts. Pereira planted a right to the body and then missed with another flying knee. Sanchez clinched up briefly but Pereira broke free. Sanchez scored  with a nice body kick later in the round, but then ate a hard right cross. Sanchez started pressing forward more but Pereira fired back with a Superman punch. Right before the round ended Pereira took Sanchez down with a suplex.

Round three

Sanchez pressed forward in round three but Pereira countered with a takedown. Moments later, Pereira somersaulted in with a kick and in the ensuing scramble, he fired another flying knee. Mid round, Pereira tagged Sanchez with a series of hard knees and as the latter went to the floor, he took another knee to the head. Since the knee was illegal, the action was stopped momentarily. Sanchez was also cut by the illegal knee. Sanchez could be heard saying he’s having trouble seeing and the fight was called. Wow.  

Here are the results so far for UFC Rio Rancho.

Diego Sanchez def. Michel Pereira via disqualification (illegal knee) R3, 3:09
Montana De La Rosa def. Mara Romero Borella via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Brok Weaver def. Kazula Vargas via disqualification (illegal knee) R1, 4:02
Ray Borg def. Rogerio Bontorin via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-25)
Lando Vannata def. Yancy Medeiros via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Daniel Rodriguez Tim Means via submission (guillotine choke) R3, 3:37
John Dodson def. Nathaniel Wood via TKO (punches) R3, 0:16
Scott Holtzman def. Jim Miller via unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28)
Devin Clark def. Dequan Townsend via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-26)
Merab Dvalishvili def. Casey Kenney via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-25, 29-28)
Macy Chiasson def. Shanna Young via unanimous decision (30-26, 30-26, 30-26)
Raulian Paiva def. Mark De La Rosa via knockout (punches) R2, 4:42

 

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