Diego Sanchez meets Jim Miller in UFC 197's featured Fight Pass prelim fight

The UFC’s new strategy of putting highly marketable bouts on the Fight Pass-streamed portion of its cards will continue in March.

A lightweight tilt between former title challenger Diego Sanchez (25-8 MMA, 14-8 UFC) and fellow veteran Jim Miller (25-7 MMA, 14-6 UFC) will be the featured bout on Fight Pass at UFC 197, the promotion today announced.

UFC 197 takes place March 5 at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on FOX Sports 1 and UFC Fight Pass. The bout order hasn’t been finalized, but Miller vs. Sanchez is ticketed for the final Fight Pass fight leading into the FOX Sports 1 broadcast.

Sanchez, the middleweight winner of Season 1 of “The Ultimate Fighter,” will return to lightweight against Miller after a one-fight stint at featherweight. Sanchez spent his time after “TUF” with long stints at both welterweight and lightweight. But a drop to 145 against Ricardo Lamas this past fall saw him drop a unanimous decision to the former featherweight title challenger.

Now Sanchez will look to get back on track after that loss, which was his third in four fights and fourth in six bouts. He challenged B.J. Penn for the 155-pound title at UFC 107 in December 2009, but including that loss he has dropped six of 10 fights.

Miller finds himself in similar need to break out of a funk. He has dropped three of his past four starting with a head kick knockout loss to Donald Cerrone 18 months ago, and including a rear-naked choke submission loss to Michael Chiesa in the UFC Fight Night 80 co-main event on Fight Pass in early December. His lone win in nearly two years was a split call over Danny Castillo at UFC on FOX 16 this past July.

With the addition, the latest UFC 197 card now includes:

• Champ Rafael dos Anjos vs. Conor McGregor – for lightweight title
• Champ Holly Holm vs. Miesha Tate – for women’s bantamweight title
• Erick Silva vs. Nordine Taleb
• Corey Anderson vs. Tom Lawlor
• Darren Elkins vs. Chas Skelly
• Jim Miller vs. Diego Sanchez

For more on UFC 197, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.