UFC Live Kampmann vs. Sanchez

UFC Live: Sanchez vs. Kampmann was supposed to be Versus’s biggest event ever, but because of numerous injuries, the card on March 3 is rather depleted.
The main bout between former lightweight contender Diego Sanchez and former middleweight, Martin Kampmann hasn’t been cancelled yet, so there is still some good news for the event.
The matchup at welterweight will be an absolute dogfight. Sanchez was badly beaten at UFC 107 in a lightweight title fight by BJ Penn but The Ultimate Fighter season one winner fought hard the entire fight. Kampmann only has two losses at welterweight, and one came in a narrow, split decision defeat to current no. 1 contender Jake Shields only four months ago. At the end of this all out war, the explosive Sanchez walks away with a TKO via strikes.
Another former Ultimate Fighter contestant and finalist, C.B. Dolloway will be in action up against the 9-2 Mark Muñoz. Muñoz, a former WEC fighter, entered the UFC in 2009 with a devastating knockout loss to Matt Hammil. He has since bounced back, only dropping one fight out of his last five. Dolloway, a former division I, All-American wrestler at Arizona State University, is one of a small handful of fighters to successfully use the Peruvian necktie submission. He was the first to do so in the UFC. The superior ground game of Dolloway will allow him to escape with a submission.
Alessio Sakara vs. Chris Weidman is one of the bouts that has been shuffled around due to multiple injures. Sakara was originally set to square off against Maiquel Falcao, 21-3, but Falcao was forced to pull out of the fight due to injury. Rafael Natal was scheduled as a replacement but, again another fighter was forced out due to injury.
Weidman, who fought in the Ring of Combat promotion along with Natal, is a UFC newcomer. Weidman wrestled collegiately at Hofstra University where he was a two time All-American. He currently holds a perfect record of 4-0; two of his wins were TKOs coming by way of strikes.
Sakara has had an up and down career in the UFC. He holds back-to-back wins over Thales Leites, and James Irvin, but has also suffered a loss at the hands of Houston Alexander, a middleweight the UFC let go after a loss to the hype-machine Kimbo Slice. Over half of the former boxer’s 23 wins have come by way of knockout, so expect to see fists flying. Sakara will easily handle the rookie Weidman with a TKO victory by way of strikes.
The final bout is a rematch between Brian Bowles and Damacio Page. In their first meeting, Bowles won by guillotine choke. Bowles is coming off of a loss but to the current UFC Bantamweight Champion, Dominick Cruz. Prior to the loss he was undefeated in his mixed martial arts career, and is hoping to climb back up the bantamweight ladder with a win over Page, a student of the highly famed Greg Jackson. This is Page’s first fight in the UFC after the UFC-WEC merger, and a win over a fighter of Bowles caliber could put him on track to the title in a thin bantamweight class. Expect to see Bowles victorious once again with a decision.
The event was originally hyped to be one of Versus best, even besting former cards that featured the highly touted Jon Jones. A bout between Matt Brown and Mark Scanlon and a fight featuring Paulo Thiago and Johny Hendricks were in the works but had to be cancelled due to fighters sustaining training injuries. Both fights have been cancelled either because a replacement fighter sustained an injury or there simply was not enough time to find one.
The UFC has had success hosting events on Versus in the past that originally were only scheduled to feature one big fight. These events are designed to expose the UFC to the world and attract new fans, as they are not pay-per-view. UFC Live: Sanchez vs. Kampmann was the first to feature several intriguing matchups, but due to things outside of the UFC’s control, it is left to rely on Sanchez and Kampmann to draw in new fans.