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Bloodied Sanchez wins Fight of the Year contender

Diego Sanchez finished strongly to defeat Martin Kampmann © Getty Images

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Diego Sanchez may have dropped his "Nightmare" moniker ahead of UFC Live, but he had to wake up halfway through one in order to produce a rousing comeback to defeat Martin Kampmann in Louisville, Kentucky.

Walking back to his corner at the end of round one, the former No. 1 lightweight contender looked almost identical to the bloodied, battered state he was left in after going nearly five rounds with BJ Penn in his December '09 title fight. Kampmann had picked off his foe at will for five minutes, dropped him, and sent Sanchez back to his stool with a face so cut up that it would have been unrecognisable as a passport photo.

However, this was Diego Sanchez, the man who has displayed incredible heart time and again throughout his UFC career. Now almost immune to Kampmann's slick Thai boxing, Sanchez waded forward, backing his foe against the cage, releasing torrents of wild hooks. Suddenly it was Kampmann who was cut at the end of the second, and it was Kampmann who was on the back foot at the end of the third. Sanchez, quite amazingly, pulled out a unanimous 29-28 decision.

"I don't forget fights like that," White told Yahoo! Sports. "That was an unbelievable fight. That was the kind of fight you saw back in the 1980s in boxing, a classic war. Diego Sanchez is one of the toughest f**** I've ever seen, man. It was a dogfight. They both gave every ounce of what they had. Kampmann got a loss on his record, but he didn't lose that fight. There are no losers when you're in a fight like that."

White reflected as much with his bonus awards, handing both men $60,000 for Fight of the Night, before throwing another $100,000 each on top - purely out of admiration. The result was controversial, with Kampmann claiming he won all three rounds after being the slicker striker throughout, but Sanchez was more aggressive through the final two.

Mark Munoz flattened CB Dollaway in the co-main event © Getty Images

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"When it all comes down to it, I threw the game plan out the window and made it a street fight and that's what I did, honestly," said Sanchez. "I showed them once again that I have a lot of heart and that I'm going to drop my **** in there. I'm going to give the fans what they want to see. That's the bottom line."

In the co-main event, Mark Munoz made extremely light work of CB Dollaway, defeating the former TUF 7 contestant by knockout after 51 seconds. One big right hand sparked the beginning of the end, handing Munoz back-to-back wins inside the Octagon.

Brian Bowles walked away with the Submission of the Night for catching Damacio Page in a guillotine for the second time in his career, while Shane Roller pocketed $40,000 for the Knockout of the Night against Thiago Tavares.

Other significant results saw Joe Stevenson decisioned by Danny Castillo, Cyrille Diabate claim two 10-8 rounds on the scorecard of one judge in a dominant win over Steve Cantwell, and Rousimar Palhares claim a kneebar submission victory over Dave Branch.

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