Diego Sanchez out of UFC 135 with broken hand, may be replaced by Josh Koscheck

Fans excited about original Ultimate Fighter winner Diego Sanchez’s upcoming bout against welterweight legend Matt Hughes went from chanting “YES! YES! YES!” yesterday to “NO! NO! NO!” earlier today when it was revealed the 29-year old had broken his hand and would be unable to compete at UFC 135.

According to Dana White through his favorite social networking outlet, Twitter, a replacement for “The Dream” was being sought giving the UFC a potential nightmare of a situation with less than three weeks before the September 24 stop in Denver. However, within a few hours of White’s announcement, Josh Koscheck had already stepped up and will fill-in for Sanchez against Hughes assuming the former champion accepts the match-up.

Hughes vs. Sanchez was set to co-headline UFC 135 with Jon Jones defending his light heavyweight title against Quinton “Rampage” Jackson in the main event.

The unfortunate news about Sanchez marked another example in a slew of similar woes to befall the card’s lineup with Damacio Page, Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto, and Manny Gamburyan all ducking out of scheduled scraps due to damage sustained in training.

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MMATraining Take: Koscheck is a great choice. He’s been out of action for awhile and it will be interesting to see how his wrestling matches up with Hughes. It will also be intriguing to see how the crowd reacts since neither welterweight is known for wearing the proverbial white hat. I’d put my money on Hughes getting the love since he’s at least in “legend” territory whereas Koscheck hasn’t done much to endear himself to the public, a shame considering he seems like an excellent guy when not playing the heel.

PHOTO CREDIT – UFC