Diego Sanchez vs. Jim Miller will be the feature bout on the Fight Pass portion of the UFC 197 preliminary card.
Diego Sanchez’s return to 155 lbs is now official, and he’ll be on Fight Pass for the first time in his career. On Wednesday afternoon, UFC officials confirmed Sanchez will face Jim Miller in the feature FP preliminary card bout at UFC 197 on March 5th. These two have a combined 43 UFC fights under their belt (Sanchez has 22, while Miller has 21).
Sanchez (25-8) competed at featherweight in his last outing, a unanimous decision loss to Ricardo Lamas at UFC Fight Night in Mexico. The former lightweight title challenger and TUF 1 winner hasn’t fought at 155 lbs since winning a highly controversial split decision over Ross Pearson back in June 2014. He’s just 4-6 in his last 10 fights, dating back to the shellacking he took vs. B.J. Penn in 2009.
Miller (25-7, 1 NC) has dropped 3 of his last 4, including a submission loss to Michael Chiesa at UFC Fight Night in Las Vegas on December 10th. While he suffered a tough defeat, he did earn FOTN honors. The New Jersey native once rode a seven-fight winning streak towards title contention at 155, but Ben Henderson snapped the streak in August 2011. Miller is 5-4 (1 NC) in his last 10 bouts, and has fallen out of the top 15 rankings.
This continues a trend of the UFC sticking “bigger” fights on its subscription service. UFC 195 had Dustin Poirier vs. Joseph Duffy on Fight Pass, and next month will feature Anderson Silva vs. Michael Bisping in the UFC London main event.
UFC 197 features a twinbill of championship bouts, as lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos defends his title against featherweight champ Conor McGregor, and Holly Holm defends her women’s bantamweight belt against Miesha Tate.