Sanchez: Pereira’s latest win is proof my defensive strategy was ‘working’
Diego Sanchez is still defending his heavily criticized performance against Michel Pereira.
Michel Pereira picked up a win this past weekend, beating Zelim Imadaev near the end of the third round as part of the UFC Vegas 9 main card.
Diego Sanchez saw the contest and explained how this is proof that his heavily criticized performance on his previous fight with Pereira was actually working.
“After witnessing the slaughter of professional striker Zelmin Imadaev by Pereira. Maybe the movement and defensive strategys (sic) I was using was working?!” Sanchez’s social media post said.
“Until the illegal blow I didn’t have a scratch or bruise or cut on my face! Minanizing (sic) head trauma facing a killer that heavily out sized me with a definitive age & speed, height, reach advantages.”
I still love you twitter pic.twitter.com/H6EcOLXhDJ
— Diego Sanchez UFC (@DiegoSanchezUFC) September 7, 2020
Sanchez fought Pereira last February, where the former TUF winner seemingly fought out of character compared to previous bouts. His performance — and bizarre corner advice — was heavily criticized by many analysts and fighters. On the broadcast, highly regarded coach Trevor Wittman questioned the lack of technical advice, and how Sanchez was just “walking straight into shots or riding the cage with weird hand stance.”
Much like what Sanchez is doing now, his controversial guru and coach, Joshua Fabia also previously tried to defend their strategy, saying Diego exhibited “Mayweather level” defense.
Sanchez admittedly made a “smart, veteran decision” to pick up the disqualification win after the illegal knee, but it’s hard to say that anything else was actually “working” that night. He was clearly losing all three rounds up until the illegal blow, and didn’t have much going on offense. As for their defensive strategy, official UFC stats say that Pereira landed 58% of his 91 significant strikes, which is more than double of Sanchez’s offensive numbers.
With the submission victory, Pereira improved to 2-2 in the UFC, while Imadaev remained winless within the promotion at 0-3.