After a standout opening event for the UFC on Fuel TV, which featured a main event between welterweight standouts Jake Ellenberger and Diego Sanchez, Dana White is making some changes, including making all main events five rounds.
“We blew it,” White said of the main event not being five rounds. “It should have been a five-round fight. As I was sitting here tonight, I was looking at the fight going, yeah, this should have been five rounds.”
Ellenberger walked away with a unanimous decision victory, but Sanchez was able to turn things around in the third round and get his opponent’s back. It was the turning point in the fight, but it was also the final round and one that would not be enough to give Sanchez the win.
“They will be five-round fights from now on,” White continued. “He (Ellenberger) has looked fantastic. He’s on a roll. At the press conference, Diego Sanchez said, ‘This is the toughest dude I ever fought.’ He said, ‘I hit this guy with some big shots, he wouldn’t go away,’ and those two both showed a lot of respect to each other in the press conference.”
“For Jake Ellenberger, beating Diego Sanchez is a big deal,” White said. “Diego Sanchez is like fighting a zombie. The guy has never been finished, has never been knocked out, never been submitted.”
Many fans are anticipating a rematch between Ellenberger and current interim UFC welterweight champion Carlos Condit. Ellenberger lost a controversial split decision to Condit when he made his UFC debut in 2009.
“I think if I’m Carlos Condit, and the Diaz match is available, I take the Diaz match. If not, I probably sit around and wait for GSP,” White said of a possible Condit vs. Diaz rematch. “It makes all the sense in the world.”
Condit won the interim title when he defeated Diaz earlier this month at UFC 143. The decision was unanimous for “The Natural Born Killer,” but many thought Diaz deserved the victory.
With reigning UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre out of action till the end of the year, Condit may have to take another fight before fighting him, and it could come against Ellenberger or Diaz.
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