After winning the first season of UFC’s reality show The Ultimate Fighter, Diego Sanchez went on to become a Hall of Famer. He never won a championship but he did put on many incredible performances. Towards the end of his UFC career he became a shell of what he once was. Some blamed getting older but most blamed this guy…
The guy on the right is self help guru and “coach” Joshua Fabia. Diego said he was in a bad place when he met Fabia and the two clicked. Videos of insane training videos surfaced of people being chased by Joshua with a knife, Sanchez getting hit in the head to supposedly toughen it up, and clapping on a beach somewhere. Just weird. Diego finally broke free in a very public way but the damage to his UFC career was already done.
News broke that former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov was starting his own MMA promotion. Eagle FC will feature Sanchez fighting another UFC veteran Kevin Lee in a main event spot. Diego revealed recently that it wasn’t the only organization he considered (via MMAJunkie).
I was going to get paid $75,000 more to go do BKFC. But being the Diego Sanchez that I am, I believe in myself and all the skills and the knowledge and the wisdom that I’ve attained over this course of the last 20 years, and the way my career ended in the UFC was not Diego Sanchez fashion. That was orchestrated by my handler. So I really wanted to truly finish my mixed martial arts legacy and career my way. Diego Sanchez intuition, intuitiveness, working through whatever I’ve got to work through, but training smart and doing my martial arts.
What do you think of his decision?