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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief Sean Sherk spoke yesterday with MMAWeekly.com about his upcoming plans, and he had plenty of ideas on who he'd like to face next in the Octagon. First on the docket, the newest addition to the lightweight ranks, Diego Sanchez. "If he wants to drop to 155, I’d like to be the first guy that fights him...I think I match up great with him...I think his ground game is phenomenal, but so is mine. I know his conditioning is phenomenal. So is mine. His boxing… is okay. But I think it would be a great match-up. You get two guys that are really aggressive fighters who have great conditioning who are going to go and bang it out for fifteen minutes."
He also understands what that fight would entail, and he'd be excited for the challenge. He said, "I’ve seen him at Abu Dhabi and that’s when it really opened my eyes as to how good he is with his match against Marcelo Garcia; that match was close, real close, for ten minutes, then Diego made a mistake and got caught. But his ground game was phenomenal. So that would definitely pose some problems for me; I’d have to be at the top of my game, and wouldn’t be able to make any mistakes."
Two other names he mentioned were Kenny Florian, a man he's defeated once but who is now the #1 contender for the Lightweight Title, and Nate Diaz, the winner of season five of the Ultimate Fighter. On Diaz, Sherk said that he deserves to face the upper tier of fighters, and that he "would really put him as one of the top guys in the weight class right now." As for Florian, despite holding a victory over him, Sherk said "Dana’s saying Kenny’s the number one contender, so I would love to get a shot with him."
Sherk finished saying he only wants to face the top guys and the best challenges. "I’m not here to collect paydays. I just want to test myself and finish my career knowing that I fought the best of the best and beat them."
Penick's Analysis: All three fighters that Sherk mentions here would be awesome match-ups. He'd be a great first fight for Sanchez, as it would be a real test for both fighters to establish themselves up at the top of the division. A second fight with Florian would be a welcome fight as well, as Florian has improved dramatically from when they fought last, and it's mostly due to that fight and the fact that it drove Florian to improve that has put him in the spot to be the #1 contender. Finally, the Diaz fight would be a great fight for Diaz to take as well, moving to the next level of competition. Hopefully we get one of these signed for early '09, because they'd all make great additions to any fight card.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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