Diego Sanchez has been back in the headlines thanks to his participation in Eagle FC. During the inaugural fight for the promotion Sanchez dropped decision to Kevin Lee but looked decently doing it in spite of being 40 years old and not having participated in an MMA bout since September of 2020.
But many are overwhelmed with interest in another part of Sanchez’ professional life. For the last two years of his career Sanchez’ presence became synonymous with guru Joshua Fabia. Fabia was Sanchez’s lone cornerman for a while and had reportedly been ruining his fighting style for quite a while. Sanchez’ last real victory in the octagon came in March of 2019 when he outwrestled Mickey Gall to a convincing decision victory. Just a week prior to the bout, Sanchez had asked Fabia to be on his team and promptly sacked his longtime coaches from Jacksonwink.
A big point of controversy came when the athletic commission was concerned ahead of Sanchez’ bout with Michael Chiesa (July 2019) when they caught wind that Sanchez would try to use Fabia’s so called secret move.
While the commission was so concerned they disclosed that to Chiesa – Chiesa was not. He reportedly laughed and went on to win a convincing decision victory. The movie in question created a lot of infamy. Later BJJScout discovered that the move in question was filmed in one of the videos Fabia shared.
But in spite of all this, Sanchez still believes the move is real and legit. 40 year old Sanchez revealed some surprising details about the fall out of the relationship in a long interview with Jesseonfire youtube.
“…it’s a real move. It’s a real move. It’s no bullshit. It’s a real move. And I never learned anything like this move. It’s a real like combat move, where you put the neck in a compromised position. And basically, if the dude like tries to fight out of it, he could break his own neck. Like, like, you know what I mean? Like, it’s not like you’re trying to break the neck but, but if the dude tries to fight the wrong way, he could break his own neck.” Sanchez explained.
This is in stark contrast to another story that was previously disclosed. In lead up to the bout between Cowboy Cerrone and Diego Sanchez, Cowboy revealed a MMA fighter friend of his got the chance to experience said move in real life and debunk it. THe friend in question is former UFC fighter Lando Vanata.
“I do know the guy that whipped his a– at the bar. I used to train with the guy and that kid was talking about his ‘death punch’ and how he was gonna kill the dude and my buddy dog walked his motherf—king ass all over the bar. So… the death punch did not work. It was unsuccessful.”
In fact the move even backfired landing Fabia into a hospital bed. A previously unknown fact. Sanchez revealed:
” You’re not gonna believe it. Like, it’s one of those things like, you ain’t gonna… You ain’t gonna believe it unless you feel it unless you’re putting it and so Josh put him in the move in the
f—ing patio at the Twin Peaks parking lot in Albuquerque, New Mexico. And he freaked out bro. He freaked out and he went for a jumping flying triangle in the patio. And the the the metal steel chair that they were sitting on, like, all their weight went down, and it blew out Fabio’s knee and I took Fabi out of the hospital that night. I did. And he had an ACL and MCL a PCL, all his ligaments were blown. And on top of that, his tibia had splintered. And he had internal bleeding”
And to make matters even more odd, Sanchez claims Fabia went on to self heal within a day.
According to Sanchez’ account Fabia was kicked out of the surgery because he had no insurance. But the story didn’t end there. Fabia reportedly claimed he had healed himself and was ready for Jake Matthews fight camp just a day later.
“You got to get insurance and come back. And so I was like, I let him go. And I was like, I can’t babysit this guy. I got five weeks, and I gotta prepare for Jake Matthews. I was like, You got your assistant, I am babysitting you. And I dropped him off, I took him to the mountain. And I dropped him off. And I was preparing to do the count myself. And all of a sudden, he knocked on my door and he walked up. And he he was walking and I was like, Whoa, what’s up with your knee. And he’s like, I did what I had to do to heal myself. And so I’m like, I’m basically witnessing a Vulcan miracle.”