Despite a loss to Myles Jury earlier this month, UFC lightweight Diego Sanchez isn’t waiting around for his next fight. With the UFC heading to his adopted hometown of Albuquerque, N.M. in June, Sanchez will jump immediately into another training camp and prepare for a bout against Ross Pearson.
The Albuquerque Journal first reported the bout on Friday morning.
Sanchez, 32, is a veteran of the first season of The Ultimate Fighter reality show. He won the middleweight tournament that season by defeating Kenny Florian and then racked up five consecutive wins. Since that winning streak, however, he has gone 7-7 in his UFC career, bouncing between lightweight and welterweight.
He has lost two consecutive fights to Gilbert Melendez (in a 2013 fight of the year candidate) and Jury. After the Jury loss, Sanchez tweeted that he’d been overcome with a case of food poisoning after eating steak tartare and quail eggs the previous evening.
Pearson, 29, is also a veteran of The Ultimate Fighter. He appeared on Season 9, winning the entire thing by beating Andre Winner in the finals. Pearson went to a no-contest in his last bout when Melvin Guillard landed an illegal knee. Prior to that, the Brit had racked up consecutive wins over George Sotiropoulos and Ryan Couture.
UFC Fight Night 42 in Albuquerque is headlined by a lightweight bout between former champion Benson Henderson and Greg Jackson-trainee Rustam Khabilov. Other notable bouts include John Dodson vs. John Moraga and Sergio Pettis vs. Yaotzin Meza.
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