American comedic actor Oscar Levant once quipped, “There's a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line.”
Those who don’t know Diego Sanchez beyond what they’ve seen of him on TV or read about him in magazines or on the Internet might very well say he too has, at the very least, blurred the border between the two. Yet despite how the media has portrayed him since he appeared on and won the inaugural season of The Ultimate Fighter series, Sanchez comes off more normal than some might expect in a one-on-one conversation.
While speaking with the Albuquerque, NM native, no warning bells go off and the needle on the nutbar detector remains stationary somewhere in between “intellectual” and “eccentric”. He is well spoken and articulate and although he makes no excuses for his alternative mental and spiritual methodologies that include a devout following of personal power guru Tony Robbins’ teachings and occasional meditation sessions in the rain and the ocean to allow him to absorb energy from the elements, he offers simple, yet thoughtful explanations as to why he practices such atypical regimens.
“When you find the balance between your mind, your body and your spirit, it makes you stronger. We’re not just made from physical and mental components. We also have spiritual element. You have to look at your being as a triangle. When you make each point of the triangle as strong as it can be, nothing is going to be able to break it,” he explains. “What separates champions from those who will never be the best is the champion’s ability to find that balance in their lives. Guys like [UFC light heavyweight champion] Lyoto [Machida] and [UFC middleweight champion] Anderson [Silva] are so focused and balanced and in tune with their spiritual sides that no one can even come close to beating them. That’s where I want to be and I think I’m close to being there.”
Sanchez has grown accustomed to being referred to as such nouns as “weird” or “loony” but wastes little energy trying to change the opinions of his detractors. He prefers instead, as he does with his opponents, to keep them guessing about what makes him tick and what he is going to do next.
“Close-minded individuals have been around since the beginning of time and they will be around until the end of time. I don’t know what’s out there in this world or beyond. This is a vast universe we live in and there are a lot of questions we’ll never know the answer to but I’m open to find what things are really all about. Are there aliens or other life forms? Is there a heaven and a hell? I’ve always been an open-minded person and I think that’s what has set me apart from other people,” Sanchez says. “I was just a grappler when I started training. Then I opened my mind up to yoga and meditation and my faith and my beliefs and I grew as a fighter and as a person. When it all comes down to it and all is said and done and the fame and the fortune and my career as a fighter are done and gone, those who know me will know who I was and what I was all about and those who think they knew me will always wonder. Let ‘em wonder. Let ’em wonder what Diego is really like and what he’s all about.”
Besides fine-tuning his mind and maintaining his faith, he says he has made great strides in his strength, conditioning and overall MMA training. The 27-year-old has spent a considerable amount of time working at honing his striking with regarded boxing trainer Tony Palafox and former Chute Boxe Muay Thai trainer and K-1 standout Andre “Dida” Amade the past several months. He was also awarded his brown belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu a few weeks ago from Xande and Saulo Ribeiro – an impressive accomplishment for Sanchez, who only began training in the gi as a white belt less than two years ago.
“Getting my brown belt was a huge accomplishment for me. I wasn’t expecting it. I had been training a lot with Kron Gracie and Rickson [Gracie] had been impressed with my level of jiu-jitsu. That had a lot to do with me getting my belt. I had experience in the highest levels of submission grappling and the Abu Dhabi tournaments but it was a very humbling experience to come and train in the gi. It made me a lot better in every area I was lacking in,” Sanchez recalls. “It really made me realize the complexities of the techniques you learn that you don’t when you aren’t wearing it. All the jiu-jitsu fighters who are truly the best guys in the sport train in the gi. I made it as far as I did, mostly because of my strength, my speed, my athleticism and my wrestling skills. ”
Saying he made it far is no exaggeration. Prior to hooking up with the Ribeiros, Sanchez held his own in grappling matches with some of the world’s most decorated jiu-jitsu black belts. Although he lost to a who’s who of jiu-jitsu including Marcelo Garcia, Jake Shields and Pablo Popovitch (whom he also beat at the 2004 Grapplers Quest U.S. Nationals) Sanchez did not look out of place competing against much more experienced grapplers.
In a recent interview, he revealed that while training recently, he submitted Demian Maia – a fighter many consider to have the best jiu-jitsu in the UFC’s middleweight division. The claim has been met with skepticism, but again Sanchez reiterates his philosophy that he and those who matter know it happened and he doesn’t feel the need to prove himself anywhere but inside the Octagon. So does that mean he is planning on putting on a jiu-jitsu clinic when he squares off against Clay Guida Saturday night at The Ultimate Fighter 9 Finale?
“One award I haven’t won yet is the ‘Submission of the Night’. Whatever God gives me – be it a knockout, a submission or a decision – I’ll take it. It doesn’t matter as long as I win. Anybody who has ever been on the mat with me knows what level of grappler I am,” he asserts. “I think people have a hard time believing it when I tell them that I’ve submitted some of the top jiu-jitsu guys like [Demian] Maia because I haven’t really shown how good my submissions are. Nine of my fights, I won by submission but I haven’t tapped anyone out in a while.”
The reason for his lack of submission wins Sanchez says is that he prefers to punctuate his victories with an exclamation point rather than a question mark.
“It’s not that I prefer to win by ground and pound, its that I prefer to erase all doubt about who would win in a rematch. Sometimes when you submit an opponent, they say you got lucky and want to fight you again because they say they just got caught,” explains Sanchez. “If I pound a guy out, they aren’t going to ask to fight me again because they know they are going to get punished. I have a viciousness that takes over. I just kind of snap in there and start punching until the referee tells me to stop.”
The fight, which will mark Sanchez’s second as a lightweight, will prove one way or the other to his detractors whether or not he has acclimated himself to his new weight. Having won TUF as a middleweight and reeling off seven wins in the Octagon as a welterweight, some question why he chose to drop down a class at this point in his career. The real question is, with a 20-pound cut from his former weight class, will he retain the strength and speed that contributed to a 22-2 record that includes wins over Jorge Santiago, Nick Diaz and Karo Parisyan? Sanchez is confident that question will be answered Saturday night.
“Cutting down to lightweight hasn’t affected me at all as far as cardio and strength goes. It’s all about how you approach challenges mentally that determines if you’re going to get past them. With the weight cut for this fight I’m actually embracing it. I’m looking forward to it and I’m going to enjoy it. It’s going to be healthy for my body; I’m going to feel great. The weight is going to come off in the perfect amount of time and I’m not going to stress about it. I feel like my body is made for 155. I walk around at 170 pounds. At my leanest, I walk around at about 168. The drop to this weight, if anything, has made me in better shape because it has forced me to eat a lot healthier and to concentrate a lot more on my cardio,” says Sanchez. “It has disciplined me. I don’t know what people base their assumptions [that I won’t be as strong or have the endurance I used to] on. In the Joe Stevenson fight we didn’t stop. I wasn’t even breathing hard and that cut should have been hard since it was my first one to 155.”
The stay at 155 will likely not be a long-term one, Sanchez says, as he plans to efficiently take care of business before returning to his old stomping grounds at 170.
“I do feel that I’ll go up to 170 again in the future. I could fight at both weights but that’s something I’ll have to think about. I’m feeling the muscle start to pack on a lot easier when I train so it’s only a matter of time before I move up again,” Sanchez predicts. “We’ll see how things go. After I accomplish everything I want to accomplish as a lightweight and as I get older and fill out more I’ll have nowhere else to go but up.”
What he hopes to accomplish is securing himself a title shot in the near future and making the best of the opportunity that Sanchez says has been a long time coming.
“This will be my fifteenth UFC fight. I include my fights I had while on the show in that record. I beat Alex Karalexis, Josh Rafferty and Josh Koscheck who were all pro fighters in the Octagon and all were three round fights, so they should count. I don’t believe I should have gotten a title shot yet because I don’t think I was ready for one until now,” says Sanchez. “I feel like right now, I’m coming into my prime. I’ve found my weight class and my team and I know I have what it takes in me to become a champion. I’m just waiting for my time and I’m working towards that goal.”
Dismissing the suggestion that Guida might present more of a challenge than he is anticipating, Sanchez breaks down the fight as he has seen it unfold in his mind several times.
“On paper, I think that I’m better in every area and I can’t see any other outcome than a dominating victory for me. That’s the honest truth. I’m not underestimating his skills; I just know that I have more skills. Clay is a wrestler who has great conditioning and a ton of heart but he’s not a technical fighter. He’s going to find out quickly that he’s fighting someone stronger than him who has more gas in the tank than he does. I’ve drastically improved my striking and I’ve seen a lot of holes in his game. I watched all of his fights from the Roger Huerta fight on and I don’t see any noticeable improvements that he’s made,” he explains. “He may have improved his striking a bit, but he doesn’t really have any power in his shots. He looks like the same Clay Guida he always does who comes out and tries to push the pace with his wrestling and cardio while landing a few strikes for points. I’ve imagined the fight in my mind a hundred times and every time it ends the same way with me on top.”
If his visions hold true and he emerges victorious, Sanchez’s eyes will be on another lightweight tilt that may have implications of who he might fight next and when he might get his coveted title shot.
“I’d love nothing more than for Kenny Florian to beat BJ Penn at UFC 101. That would set up an awesome match for the fans. The rematch of the original Ultimate Fighter finalists – a rematch of a fight that I completely overpowered Kenny Florian in and made him look like a C-class fighter. I whooped him. That was probably one of the easiest fights of my whole career,” Sanchez says. “If BJ comes back strong and wins the fight – which I would like to happen because I want to see him come back from his loss to (Georges) St-Pierre – I think that would set up a huge fight as well. People know that if me and BJ Penn fight, it’s going to be a scrap. Either fight would be great in my opinion and I think a decisive win over Clay Guida would put me right there for a title shot.”
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