Just a week-and-a-half past his UFC on Versus 3 unanimous decision victory, Diego “The Dream” Sanchez (23-4) is recovering from his wounds and still reveling in, what could be, a “Fight of the Year” candidate with Martin Kampmann.
Sanchez battled it out for three rounds in the main event of the Versus show, ending up very battered in what he referred to as a “war” with Kampmann. UFC President Dana White was so impressed by the performance of both fighters that he awarded them an unprecedented $160,000 “Fight of the Night” bonus, well over the $40,000 awarded for “Knockout” and “Submission” bonuses.
“The Dream” spoke about the fight recently on Bruce Buffer’s “It’s Time” radio show (interview begins at 14:20) where he expressed his surprise at how tough Kampmann was to take down.
“Martin was a big [welterweight]. He surprised me with his takedown defense. I had trained for a wrestling fight. I really did. I was expecting to just take him down at will. In that cage, the canvas is a little slippery on the bare feet, but I kept at it. It showed me I need to get stronger. When you get injured as a fighter, you get cut, you know that the fight could be stopped. In me anyway, when I get cut, it brings something out of me like a sense of urgency, a sense to fight harder. That’s what happened in the fight. I got cut and I was like, ‘All right, I better leave it all out there.’”
HT: Sherdog.com for the transcription