It appears that The Ultimate Fighter 1 winner Diego Sanchez will be facing Donald Cerrone in his final fight.
MMA Fighting was first to report late Thursday after confirming with several anonymous sources that verbal agreements are in place for a welterweight bout between Sanchez and Cerrone.
The UFC is looking to add the fight to a UFC event on May 8. The venue is yet to be announced.
Both Sanchez (30-13 MMA, 19-13 UFC) and Cerrone (36-15 MMA, 23-12-1 UFC) are long-time natives of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Having trained under the same gym for several years before both fighters eventually split off to build their own camps around them, these two men will be very familiar with each other going into their bout on May 8. It’s likely that both fighters even know where they stand in hierarchy amongst each other.
Sanchez, 39, is coming off a loss in his last bout to Jake Matthews at UFC 253: Adesanya vs. Costa, last September. Prior to that, Sanchez defeated Michel Pereira by disqualification after he was unable to recover from an illegal knee landed to the head while he was grounded.
Cerrone, 37, fought to a draw against Niko Price in his last fight which was later ruled as a no contest due to his opponent testing above the allowed limit for marijuana. Prior to his NC against Price, Cerrone was on a four-fight losing streak after losing to a murderers row of opponents in Tony Ferguson, Justin Gaethje, Conor McGregor, and Anthony Pettis.
