UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson escaped with title in hand by the narrowest of margins against Gilbert Melendez at UFC on Fox 7. One man who was not impressed was Diego Sanchez.
Speaking to MMA Junkie, Sanchez did his best “I am not impressed by your performance” impersonation when asked about Henderson-Melendez.
“After watching Benson Henderson’s performance against Gilbert Melendez, I must say, I wasn’t impressed,” Sanchez said. “I see a lot of holes in his game, and I feel like that belt’s there for the taking.”
An area where Sanchez saw a particular weakness was in Henderson’s game plan:
He’s strong, but in the Gilbert fight, he didn’t try to do one takedown the whole fight, which I think a champion would see, ‘I’m not dominating this fight in the stand-up, so let’s work for something else. Let’s try to change it up and at least get some points.’ At least try to win some rounds more convincingly, the way he did with Jim Miller. But he was just very content in his striking style and throwing the kicks. I saw it as a mediocre performance, and I think I can get in there and beat this guy.
Henderson’s victory marked his third title defense and outside of his bout with Nate Diaz, all of the title fights Henderson has been in while in the UFC have been very close.
Sanchez took part in his own close-decision victory in his last outing as he barely made it past an aging Takanori Gomi. It didn’t help that Sanchez came in two pounds over in his return to the lightweight division either.
Sanchez is likely quite a ways from another UFC title shot at 155 pounds. “The Dream” has a number of items going against him right now if he plans on challenging for the title.
For one, he’ll need to prove he can even make 155 pounds for his next fight, which is tentatively scheduled for UFC 164 in August. There’s also the fact that Sanchez was absolutely mauled in his only title appearance to date against BJ Penn at UFC 107. And of course his latest “victory” over Gomi was extremely underwhelming for the original Ultimate Fighter winner.
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