Diego Sanchez’ unfortunate saga with Joshua Fabia received its last chapter back in May of 2021. Shortly after the fall out with the UFC and the publication of suggestive Onlyfans captions Diego Sanchez severed both his professional and personal relationship with mentor, coach, manager Joshua Fabia.
Sanchez was initially reluctant to speak on the matter – having refused to discuss it during the pre fight interviews with Kevin Lee but appears to have had a change of heart. 40 year old Sanchez revealed some surprising details about the fall out of the relationship in a long interview with Jesseonfire youtube. Jesse on fire frequently featured vulgar headlines regarding the relationship Sanchez and Fabia head during their collaboration so it seems like a very peculiar choice for an expose.
Diego Sanchez previously posted that getting rid of Fabia cost him about $100,000 – this is a claim Diego confirmed in the interview saying:
“I was scared man. Like, like, like, I’m gonna have this little motherf—er like trying out, like, follow me and tried to like, maybe kill me. You know what I mean?”
“I like had to put up with s–t. And I had to put up with that little f—ing weasel s–t. I was getting stuff from it, like, the whole time. And he was he was he was blessing me with his knowledge and what he knew that other MMA coaches and other fighters, they didn’t have a f—ing clue about what this guy really knew. It was like, it was like working with like, Leonardo da Vinci. ”
Sanchez clarified:
“And I’m grateful that I’m still here. And yeah, I had to pay him out, you know, so that it would be like, you know, I paid him out so that it would be done. You know what I mean? Like, I paid you get out of my life. I’m Diego. You’re whoever the f–k you are. I don’t know who the f–k you really are or what you are, but to get the f–k out of my life. Is Diego Sanchez his life? And I’m doing it my way.”
In Sanchez’ mind it was blackmail due to the degree of control Fabia exerted over him:
“In a way? Yeah, in a way it was blackmail. In a way it was like no, but um, because this guy was such a master manipulator that you know, he had me so manipulated that to where, you know, I truly believe that that this guy was Like, end of times, Prophet, you know,”
The claims MMA community long held that Sanchez was manipulated by Fabia into believing he was the second coming of Messiah were confirmed in the interview. This is what videos like the excellent BJJScout series on Sanchez/Fabia unholy alliance and Beige frequency long claimed. Part of this next story had gotten out previously – with Donald Cowboy Cerrone sharing that Lando Vanata was shown the so called ‘death’ move by Fabia – and it backfired badly with Fabia ending up in the hospital that night. At the time Cowboy shared:
“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.”
To hear Sanchez tell it is a different story. In the interview he revealed Fabia suffered multiple knee injuries and internal bleeding:
“Josh put him in the move in the f–king 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 Fabia’s knee and I took Fabia 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’
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.”