Part of the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s new seven year partnership with FOX includes shoulder programming on the FOX-owned extreme sports channel FUEL TV.
The UFC will make its FUEL TV premiere on Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2012, LIVE from the CenturyLink Center in Omaha, Neb. UFC President Dana White confirmed the date and headline fight on Tuesday.
The main event for the FUEL TV premiere will be a three-round welterweight match-up between 26-year-old top-five ranked Jake “The Juggernaut” Ellenberger (26-5) and 29-year-old TUF 1 winner Diego “The Dream” Sanchez (23-4).
Ellenberger’s only loss inside the UFC Octagon was in his debut when he dropped a split decision to 170-pound top contender Carlos Condit. Since then the Omaha native has won five straight bouts, including most recently, a first round TKO over Jake Shields in September.
After losing to B.J. Penn in a lightweight championship bout in Dec. 2009, Sanchez has only fought three times. A broken hand and other injuries prevented the original “Ultimate Fighter” from being more active.
Sanchez has won “Fight of the Night” honors in his last two fights, taking home unanimous decision victories over Paulo Thiago at UFC 121 in October of last year and over Martin Kampmann at UFC on Versus 3 in March 2011.
Stay close to ProMMAnow.com (www.prommanow.com) and our Upcoming Events page as more fights are announced for the UFC’s premiere on FUEL TV.