Diego Sanchez needs to stop taking punishment

Diego Sanchez is likely always going to have a job in the UFC.

On top of being the original Ultimate Fighter, by winning a 185 pound bloat off with Kenny Florian, he always has and always will deliver high octane and exciting fights.

But, that isn't always a good thing for Diego. Saturday night highlighted once again why it may be time for him to leave those gloves laying in the middle of the cage, remembered for what he was while he can still remember anything.

Early victories over Nick Diaz and Joe Riggs showed that a younger, thriving Diego was capable of a lot. After his setbacks to Jon Fitch and Josh Koscheck and a drop down to the Lightweight division, he plowed through back to back Fight of the Night honors against Joe Stevenson and an all-time great fight with Clay Guida. Including his 155 pound debut against Stevenson, he was won 5 of his last 9, with six Fight of the Night honors during that stretch. So there is no doubt that entertainment is his forte with his particular style.

The many faces of Diego Sanchez post fight.
They usually have a lot of (red) things in common.

I was excited about his return to 155 pounds, where he had his most success, culminating in a title shot again BJ Penn. It was in that title fight that he was mutilated. But going into Friday's weigh ins for his UFC 166 battle with Gilbert Melendez, Diego looked cut and like he could make another run at the top at 155. What happened after is being considered a fight of the year candidate, but to me that is just surface talk.

The reality, and a sad one to me, is that Gilbert trounced Diego all over that cage. While both men came forward with flurries worthy of being on UFC fight highlights and show openings for years, Melendez landed quicker and more precise. Diego himself, the instigator of the flurries, barely landed.

Instead he left after another decision, this one a loss, with a familiar combination of a massively swollen face and a fountain of blood running into every crevasse on that face. It's years of abuse, it's a lot of scar tissue and it's just in his DNA to bruise easy and bleed heavily.

But it's hard to watch, sad to see and makes me question whether now is the time for Dana White, or somebody else close to Diego, to say that enough is enough. Clearly Dana White has no issue making known how he feels about fighters taking too much punishment. He virtually pushed Chuck Liddell and Matt Hughes into retirement, hinted vigorously at Forrest Griffin and after that same UFC 166 card, he was straight forward in how Junior Dos Santos' corner should have thrown in the towel midway through yet another beating at the hands of Cain Velasquez.

So why not feel the same about Diego? Just because the fight was entertaining? Dana has said many times things along the lines of Diego having a heart matched only by his chin. But both having a lot of heart and having a steel chin really only translate to one, similar thing, in MMA: you have, often, gotten the total crap kicked out of you.

When all is said and done, Diego's role in the UFC's development and his credit as perhaps the most entertaining fighter in the sports history, should be enough for Hall of Fame consideration. He will retire, whenever that is, as one of the very better fighters to never wear UFC gold.

But now is the time. Diego has taken too much punishment and is no longer doing himself or anyone else any favors.

13-6 is a respectable mark inside the Octagon, but I would really like to see his 20^th UFC fight as his swan song. Diego deserves a proper sendoff and as one of the guys who really set the UFC off (as much as Griffin and Stephan Bonnar get the most attention for that front, that night and that season of TUF), he absolutely deserves better than what he has been getting.