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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
The welterweight matchup between Matt Hughes and Diego Sanchez will take place on September's UFC 135 card from the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colo. as expected.
When the UFC announced the bout in April, they said only that the fight would come "in the fall." However, at the time of the announcement, Hughes wrote on his personal website that the fight would be coming on the Sept. 24 event, and now Sanchez has concurred with that statement.
"Fighting in Denver, Sept. 24," Sanchez wrote on Twitter on Wednesday. "Mark your calendars!"
Hughes, the former Welterweight Champion and UFC Hall of Famer, fights for the first time since having a three fight win streak snapped in 21 seconds in his rubber match with B.J. Penn last November. Prior to the loss, Hughes had picked up his most impressive win in quite some time with his submission of Ricardo Almeida last summer, but the Penn loss completely halted his momentum.
Sanchez, meanwhile, enters the fight off his second straight win, albeit by a controversial decision over Martin Kampmann in March. After his impressive display over Paulo Thiago in October of last year, Sanchez came into the Kampmann fight looking to impress again. In a close fight, Sanchez found his face beaten and bloodied by Kampmann by the end of the fight, but his pressure and striking exchanges were enough for the judges to give him two round of the fight and the decision.
UFC 135 marks the UFC's first return to Denver since UFC Ultimate Ultimate in 1995. The city hosted the first two UFC events in 1993 and 1994 prior to that, but the UFC hasn't been back to the city since the 1995 event.
Penick's Analysis: This is an excellent welterweight fight, and with the addition of what's sure to be at least one title fight, this card should shape up nicely for the organization's return to the city. Considering it's the city that hosted the first ever UFC event, and they haven't been there in 16 years, they'll have history to play off of in the lead up to it as well, and it should make for a good draw at the Pepsi Center.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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