Lightweight star Joe Lauzon was away for nine months before returning inside the octagon last September 5 to fight and crush Michael Chiesa in UFC Fight Night 50. In less than a few months, Lauzon has accepted to fight again on short notice. He fills in against Diego Sanchez (25-7) in Mexico City Nov. 15 for the UFC 180.

He said "My manager called me up and asked if I wanted to fight Diego because he needed an opponent, and I laughed and said, 'sure.' I thought he was going to end up fighting [Conor] McGregor but he told me he checked with the UFC and that wasn't happening. Then, it became a bit more real, and I told him, 'yeah, I'll fight him.' He called the UFC, and a couple hours later we had the fight."

Although Lauzon is back in the gym he owns regularly since his Sep. 5 TKO of Michael Chiesa, but he acknowledges that his training was not the same as he would for a fight.

According to Lauzon there are several reason why he chose to accept the offer as the fight appealed to him. He said "It's cool that the fight is in Mexico. Also, my last two wins were against two Ultimate Fighter winners (Chiesa and Mac Danzig), so it would be neat to face a winner of the original TUF. Plus, Diego always has exciting fights. So, I think we can put on a great fight."

Right now, Lauzon is analyzing Sanchez skills and play and working on how to win the match. He is a fighter which uses technique and brains and he said that he will fight smart and tactical against Sanchez.

He said "Diego has amazing Jiu Jitsu. I've watched him his whole career. He hasn't used his grappling too much lately, and I know he has not been doing so well, but he's so tough and dangerous. I'm going to try and fight smart against him - that's definitely going to be my idea. But, he's so good at getting guys to fight his type of fight, and brawl. Someone is probably going to end up bleeding."