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02:11That's one of my favorites.
02:12Yeah, here's a little walk down memory lane.
02:17Growing up in Albuquerque in the 90s, Diego Sanchez takes up fighting not as a sport, but as a survival
02:23skill.
02:25There was kids, 6th grade, 7th grade, taking guns and knives, putting them in their lockers, so it was that
02:32real.
02:32I remember going to the principal's office, and there'd be scuffles, and I was bullied, and we would get in
02:40a lot of fights.
02:42So Diego's mother signs him up for karate classes, where he shows early promise.
02:47The guys that I was fighting, they were older, they were bigger, and they were stronger.
02:53I was winning, and I was winning every time.
02:57That's where I really truly knew that I was born for this.
03:02In high school, Diego excels on the wrestling team.
03:06State championship in high school, right?
03:16But Diego's interest in the sport fades the moment he sees a fellow wrestler practicing a more combative fighting style.
03:24He was doing jujitsu, and I was asking him about it, and I was getting inspired about it.
03:30For me, wrestling, you have to pin the guy and win on points.
03:38This is the real wrestling.
03:40I get to make the other man tap out, and making him give up, that's a real victory.
03:46And I was like, you know what?
03:47I might just be made for this.
03:50Like, this might be my opportunity to make something great out of myself.
03:54My first impressions of Diego was very intense.
03:58He was a very young kid, kind of skinny right out of high school, but he was full of confidence.
04:03He was full of fire.
04:05I'm Greg Jackson.
04:07I run a mixed martial arts school in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and I was Diego's first coach.
04:12He assured everybody that would talk to him that he was going to be a MMA world champion, that he
04:18was going to be the best to ever do it.
04:19He really believed in himself, and you felt he was so convinced of it that you almost believed it, too.
04:25He was like, wow, if this kid has that kind of confidence, maybe there's something to it.
04:31Sanchez is a big, proud favorite here.
04:33And soon Diego is justifying that self-confidence in the cage.
04:38Sanchez pounds down with strikes.
04:41We put him out king of the cage as his first organization, and he immediately started rattling off wins.
04:49Diego's intense, highly aggressive technique earns him a menacing nickname.
04:59He was just always attacking, always trying to find an opening, always trying to hit you, always trying to submit
05:04you.
05:05But it kind of was a nightmare to fight him.
05:08With God, all things are possible.
05:10And I believe that God put it in my heart to be a champion.
05:14Going for the armbar.
05:15That's it.
05:16He's tapping.
05:16That's it.
05:17And nobody was going to tell me otherwise.
05:19And I went like a bat out of hell on this mission to be at the top.
05:25In 2004, just two years after making his professional MMA debut, Diego's mission is accomplished.
05:31And new welterweight champion of the world, Diego Sanchez!
05:40His success draws the attention of the then financially struggling UFC.
05:45With plans to launch a reality show they hope will spark more interest in the league.
05:50After that, I was already 11-0.
05:53And that's when one of my sponsors had the insight from Dana White knowing that the show was coming out
05:58and how big it was going to be.
06:02It's called The Ultimate Fighter, a brand new TV series where up and coming mixed martial artists live together while
06:09competing for a winner-take-all UFC contract.
06:12I was a smaller guy.
06:13I don't think they had intentions that I was going to win.
06:18He was very unique.
06:19He was a very spiritual guy.
06:21He was a very religious guy at the time that I knew him.
06:24My name is Kenny Florian and I was a contestant on season one of The Ultimate Fighter.
06:30It was a long call.
06:32I fought three fights in four months and training twice a day, every day.
06:37He destroyed everybody on that show.
06:40It's over.
06:41I went through The Ultimate Fighter like butter.
06:44Man, it was a hot knife.
06:46Diego wins all three of his fights on his way to the season finale, where he's up against Kenny Florian.
06:52Before I knew it, Diego had taken me down, had mounted me, and I was bloody.
07:00Florian being punished by Sanchez.
07:02Florian is up!
07:03And the fight was over.
07:05You do win the six-figure contract with the UFC.
07:09You are the ultimate fighter in the 185-pound division.
07:14I remember thinking, like, this kid's going to be a big star.
07:19Diego promptly moves to California, leaving behind his first trainer, Greg Jackson.
07:25After that, he was, like, a certified MMA star, like, everybody knew who he was.
07:30He got a lot of attention, doing photo shoots everywhere.
07:34But not everyone in the UFC is celebrating the success of The Ultimate Fighter's first champion,
07:39including welterweight Nick Diaz.
07:44Diego Sanchez, he was in the intermediate, so I was in the advanced.
07:48I remember how jealous he was, and he was so pissed.
07:52He's like, I'm a real UFC fighter, and these punk-ass are just reality show guys.
07:57I saw a lot of Diego Sanchez, one of my all-time favorites.
08:03I'm Mike Goldberg.
08:04I was the lead broadcaster, lead play-by-play announcer for 19 years with the UFC.
08:12Diego's intensity and his passion for fighting and his willingness to leave it all in the octagon,
08:20that's Diego Sanchez.
08:22He defined a true fighter, a competitor who would not be denied,
08:29and he was as good as anybody in the world.
08:34Diego's UFC record climbs to 8-2.
08:37Then, in 2009, Diego enters the cage to face off against an equally relentless and feared fighter,
08:45Clay Guida.
08:50When Clay Guida and Diego Sanchez were slotted to fight each other,
08:54I was like, man, this is going to be a barn burner,
08:56just because Clay is very much cut from the same cloth as Diego.
09:02They both come from wrestling backgrounds.
09:04They are both high-energy guys.
09:07They are both guys that are, like, untameable, that are going to come forward.
09:12How pumped up is that guy? Always pumped up.
09:15I've already been training for three years, strong and solid.
09:18Finally, I was going to be able to just go out there and let it go.
09:23Great fights are never one-sided.
09:26My name is John McCarthy.
09:28Most people in the MMA world would know me as Big John McCarthy,
09:32referee for the UFC for 25 years or so.
09:36Great fights are ones where you have the drama of someone coming back.
09:41Adversity. Someone fighting through that adversity.
09:45And the Clay Guida vs. Diego Sanchez fight fits into that category.
09:49Let's touch those, go back, let's do this.
09:53Wow.
09:59Fighting out of the red corner. This man is a mix of...
10:02In 2009, Diego Sanchez takes on his toughest competitor to date, Clay Guida.
10:08A fighter who works so hard, they call him the carpenter.
10:11And here we go!
10:13The start of that fight was sensational.
10:17Swing it! Oh my God!
10:19Unbelievable start!
10:20There's that uppercut, and the flying knees, and just the intensity of that fight,
10:25and that Clay survived.
10:27Clay Guida had to fight his way out of a tornado in that first round, and he did.
10:32He got his way through it.
10:35Almost got put away a second time with the high kick, but again, found his way out of it.
10:41And then came out, and he comes and takes Diego down.
10:45I barely made the wait for that fight, and that's why, going into the second round, I was like,
10:51oh, I'm tired.
10:54But Diego comes up with the, okay, I can't seem to get up from you, but I'm gonna hurt you
10:59from here, and does.
11:00Elbows from the bottom by Diego, powerful elbows.
11:04They had one of the bloodiest, craziest fights that I've ever seen.
11:08It was amazing. I wasn't exactly sure who had won.
11:12I thought that maybe Clay was gonna get the nod, but Diego was right there.
11:18I mean, it really could have gone either way.
11:20Clay was a bloody fight, and it wasn't my blood, it was all his blood.
11:25Diego!
11:26It was just a great fight. Couldn't have happened without me and Clay. It was both of us in there.
11:32The UFC agrees, awarding Diego and Clay the coveted Fight of the Year award.
11:38The fight between Diego and Clay absolutely deserves to be in the UFC's Hall of Fame.
11:44Diego's victory also earns him a shot at the UFC lightweight title, held by one of the sport's all-time
11:50greats, BJ Penn.
11:52BJ Penn is the scariest man at 155 pounds in the world.
11:57Let's make a golf analogy here.
11:59There's a lot of great players who couldn't capture a major because Tiger Woods was winning every tournament.
12:05And it didn't matter how well they played, you had Tiger Woods.
12:09Well, at that time, BJ Penn was like Tiger Woods.
12:14But there's never a time that Diego Sanchez walks towards the octagon with any doubt in his mind that,
12:21am I going to win this fight or not?
12:24That's not Diego.
12:25Diego's confidence and self-belief was amazing.
12:30Diego went in there and just, I'm going to be honest, he fought his ass off.
12:43He tried everything he could do.
12:47It just didn't work out.
12:48Those are the types of fights you've got to mentally just be strong and say,
12:52it's okay, I'll just do it again.
12:55For the first four rounds, BJ dominates Diego but can't put him away.
12:59You've got to work, baby, you've got to work.
13:00But then, in the fifth round...
13:02Oh, this dude's able to kick.
13:05Diego got hit with a head kick.
13:07It split him open bad, it hurt him.
13:10He's going to check the cut.
13:12The head kick that he got hit with, it would have knocked out a horse.
13:16That's it.
13:18It is 11!
13:20Though Diego has lost other fights, he is both physically and emotionally rocked by what happens against BJ Penn.
13:27When I was in there with BJ, I had to go through something that was not normal to me.
13:34It was an eye-opener, you know, that, you know, you're not invincible.
13:40That was my moment, my dream ripped from my fingertips.
13:46You, in your heart, believe, I was born for this, this is my destiny, I'm destined to be the UFC
13:53champion.
13:54This is my life, my soul, and then it's ripped from you.
13:59And you have to wake up and say, hey man, you know what, man, you did that to yourself.
14:04Following that defeat, Diego loses himself to the excesses of Las Vegas.
14:11Vegas was not so good for me, because it was just the fight capital of the world, and everybody knew
14:18who I was, and I could get anything for free.
14:28I remember seeing Diego at the MMA Awards that year.
14:32It seemed like he was having a good time before he even got there.
14:35Next year, I'm going to become more awards, you know, more years, more awards.
14:43I was numbing the pain of not being who I thought I was in the BJ Penn fight.
14:50I'm Diego Sanchez, I do what I want. I'm going to come with my own style, I'm going to come
14:53with my own swag.
14:55You're hitting home run after home run after home run after home run, and then they hit the home run
15:00on you.
15:03This was the moment that I hit rock bottom. I was just in the hotel ordering some room service.
15:09The card came back, declined, and I knew how much money I had spent.
15:15There should have still been at least another hundred grand in there.
15:19One of my friends was jacking me real good.
15:24When you're too trusting, and you think someone's there to help you, but my mental state wasn't there.
15:31Diego's money and unshakable self-confidence are gone, replaced by dread and uncertainty.
15:37When you're not in your sober mind, that's when the spirit of fear, that's when the spirit of doubt,
15:42that's when you're going to fall into even worse temptations, that's when you're going to make these worse mistakes.
15:48And this comes in the guise of a new trainer, promising to restore what Diego worries may be gone forever.
15:55Whoever this guy is, he's a douchebag, and he needs to be stopped.
16:01Coach, hit me with the stick.
16:04Diego wasn't Diego anymore.
16:06I was in true danger.
16:15I really did live my life on the fly, and it was like...
16:19Broke and watching his UFC dreams crumble, Diego Sanchez decides he needs to make a change.
16:25It was my birthday, New Year's Eve, and I was like, man, I'm going to be 28, almost 30, I'm
16:32getting old.
16:34I better get my shit together, I told myself.
16:37And that's why I moved back to Albuquerque.
16:42He came back and wanted to be back on the team again, to which of course we love Diego,
16:46so we welcomed him with open arms, and just got back to business as usual again.
16:53Returning to the Jackson Wink gym is not the only relationship Diego rekindles in Albuquerque.
16:59I fell in love with Bernadette.
17:01I had a crush on her since high school.
17:03And we engaged in three weeks, married in three months.
17:07A year into their marriage, Diego and Bernadette have a daughter, Deja.
17:12Deja's pride and joy, you know, she just loves him so much.
17:18There's a side of him.
17:20People have met Diego and they say, wow, you know, he's so gentle.
17:24But in the cage, he's a different story.
17:27In the cage, the nightmare.
17:28Right, yeah.
17:30But even being back at Jackson Wink, the nightmare struggles to reawaken his once unlimited potential.
17:37He's in trouble.
17:39Sanchez, he kind of palms the face.
17:41He's out.
17:43Over the next seven years, he remains a fan favorite.
17:46There he is, there the winner is right here, baby.
17:49Right here, you hear that?
17:51Wins some fight of the night bonuses for his octagon performances.
17:55Diego!
17:57But can't put a string of wins together.
18:00And he never gets another title shot.
18:07His professional struggles lead to tension at home.
18:11Bernadette is afraid Diego will get permanently hurt and urges him to retire.
18:16But Diego wants to keep fighting, and that helps to end his marriage.
18:24He's once more emotionally adrift as he struggles to prepare for his next fight.
18:30And I was doing three trainings a day.
18:33That's when this guy walked by me.
18:36He walked real smooth.
18:38And it was almost like he was gliding.
18:42And he started telling me that he had some stuff that he could help me with.
18:48That he was a wrestler.
18:50I was like, you know what?
18:52This little guy wants to talk the talk.
18:54All right, let's see if he can walk the walk.
18:56So we started to wrestle.
19:00He got to my back in a slick fashion.
19:04And he locked me up in a little move that caught my elbow in an elbow lock.
19:10And it was a move I'd never seen before.
19:13I was like, okay, okay, we're good, we're good.
19:15Tip of the blade and two sides.
19:17The man's name is Joshua Fabia.
19:20And Diego books a training session with him to see what else he can offer.
19:26He worked on my body, helped me out.
19:29That made me trusting to him.
19:32We went into some mental meditation work.
19:35The icing on the cake was the therapy session that I got that night.
19:41Because I didn't talk to nobody about the divorce and the breakup.
19:47Diego starts working with Fabia at the Jackson Wink gym, supplementing his regular training.
19:52Diego would bring in other coaches constantly.
19:55Sometimes it really worked out.
19:58Like I've made some great friends through the people that Diego has brought in.
20:02The stuff he did was a little different because he came from a different type of mentality of training.
20:08Very few people are complete martial artists anymore.
20:12Because I understand the gray space of everything in between, I can do any sport.
20:16So working with Diego in martial arts, as I am also a martial artist, not a big deal.
20:21He'd come over and we'd work just stuff that I'd never trained before.
20:26We do vision training, we do balance training, we do movement training.
20:30I remember going, hmm, that might not be the most effective thing to do.
20:34But again, sometimes there's methods to the madness that I don't understand.
20:38Including Diego's use of psychedelics to allegedly reignite his inner warrior.
20:43I was pretty evident that I wasn't going to learn much there.
20:46But, you know, if Diego believed in him and the guy could get Diego to push that extra inch, good
20:52for him.
20:52The medicine of choice was psilocybin, mushrooms.
20:58Mushrooms are an intense thing.
21:03It's a pretty wild experience.
21:06I could go into how I'm shooting up out of my body.
21:13Seeing the stars from the lowest point on earth in a way that he said no one else has ever
21:20done it.
21:23I mean, it was only me and him that have experienced that.
21:32When Diego fights as an underdog against the younger and taller Mickey Gall,
21:37Jackson Wing trainers are still in Diego's corner.
21:40Back up against the fence. Sanchez changes levels.
21:42He's got a Darce though. He looks for a Darce. He doesn't have it.
21:45Back off the fence. Straight shot.
21:47But it's Joshua Fabia inside Diego's head.
21:50He was in the stands and I could hear him in the stands.
21:54And I went through Mickey Gall like a knife in hot butter.
21:59This is it. This is it. That's it.
22:01Diego Sanchez stops Mickey Gall.
22:04He showed that greatness. And so I think it surprised a lot of people that he was able to beat
22:09somebody as tough as Gall.
22:11Earning nearly $200,000, Diego celebrates in the cage with his Jackson Wink team.
22:17The next day after the Mickey Gall fight, the divorce was finalized.
22:21You know, I'm just trying to move forward in life.
22:23You know, I just keep on doing what I do, doing my job.
22:28But at a press conference three weeks before his next fight, Diego makes a surprise announcement that he's also divorcing
22:34his longtime trainers.
22:36No more JW. Jackson Wink. One of the best teams in the world.
22:41Oh, I'm going in with one trainer. I'm going in with one trainer.
22:46And this is when my team didn't give me the love that I felt that I deserved at that moment,
22:53you know, for being the guy that opened the door for the UFC and started the whole thing.
22:58I think there's a myth that like Diego was the only guy here. We've had tons and tons of great
23:03fighters.
23:04So I don't think it was that, you know, Diego was the superstar and everything revolved around him, even though
23:10he might have felt that way at the time.
23:12Me and Greg and Wink, we all were very close and been through a lot, but also deciding that I
23:20had to evolve as a fighter if I was going to do what I needed to do in the sport.
23:27The universe brought me Josh Fabia right at the right time. It's a true perfectionist putting in that perfection to
23:35make me the perfect fighter.
23:38And I think that these guys get in Diego's ear and they know they just they're relentless with it.
23:42They go over and over and they create problems where, well, it wasn't a problem.
23:50July 6, 2019, Diego Sanchez, now being trained by Joshua Fabia, fights Michael Chiesa at the T-Mobile Arena in
23:58front of 18,000 fans.
24:00Upon entering the octagon, Diego looks reborn.
24:05He's 37. Diego Sanchez is an animal and he keeps talking about anti-aging, secrets of anti-aging.
24:13Hey, man, look into it. Look at him.
24:16But while Diego comes out looking like Tarzan.
24:21He is just ragdolling Diego, which I don't remember seeing anybody ever do before.
24:26Chiesa has Diego fighting more like Jane.
24:29I don't think I've ever seen anybody handle Diego on the ground with this much ease.
24:33Diego hangs on losing by decision.
24:35But after the fight, Diego's new trainer alleges Diego was forced to give Chiesa the victory.
24:42This moment happens where the Nevada State Commission comes in and leans on Diego and he has to throw a
24:51fucking fight.
24:52He put out a thing saying that the commission came in the back and told Diego to throw the fight.
25:00It's like, look, I have done thousands upon thousands of fights.
25:07There's nobody in the commission telling anybody to do anything.
25:11And so you look and you go, you're full of shit. You're a liar.
25:18Fabia's unsubstantiated accusations sparks gossip about his unprecedented relationship with Diego.
25:26Honestly, the only time I've seen a singular person become the sole possessor of someone's fighting soul is when Fabia
25:37was with Diego Sanchez.
25:39I had a couple of guys who were affiliated with the UFC that had mentioned to me, there's this guy,
25:45Joshua Fabia.
25:46I don't know if you've seen this new guy in Diego's corner.
25:48I was like, yeah, I have. Like, this guy's nuts.
25:51He's like very disrespectful.
25:53He has this crazy ego.
25:56Fabia didn't want anybody else around.
25:58That's a sign right there.
26:00You are stopping your motion.
26:03Do not wait to see your work.
26:05Fabia's cornering of Diego only fuels the concerns.
26:09Off the line before you attack.
26:11V drill.
26:12V drill.
26:13Think of the shadow.
26:14Shadow, I need you to get in.
26:15And that was when I looked and I said, that dude's a fraud.
26:19He has no idea about fighting.
26:21He's not helping Diego at all right now.
26:23Sanchez, take it to big punishment.
26:26I've known Diego for a long period of time.
26:28This is just very strange to me.
26:30I don't, I don't see what's going on right here.
26:32If you look at some of the facts, like he never fought mixed martial arts, right?
26:36Yet he's speaking with tremendous confidence.
26:39How come are you not putting the emphasis on a 38 year old man in less than a year changed
26:44his style?
26:45And one guy did it.
26:47Not a team of six guys.
26:48How come nobody's saying anything positive like that?
26:51That to me is a massive red flag.
26:53This guy seemed like a charlatan to me.
26:56When Fabia is challenged by the media, he becomes angry and defensive.
27:01Maybe you should ask me what the **** it means, asshole.
27:04Maybe you should actually have a conversation with somebody before you slander them on national television on a **** broadcast
27:09like you know what you're doing.
27:10And for Diego, the worst is yet to come.
27:14It was like I was doing a deal with the devil to get the secret knowledge.
27:19I didn't know he was the devil yet.
27:26I'm just doing something that is different.
27:29And the point is everybody's little insecurities might be the real problem here.
27:34As Joshua Fabia takes greater control of Diego's career, the MMA world becomes concerned.
27:39What really worried me is Diego never got a chance to talk.
27:44Real quick, guys.
27:45This becomes especially problematic when a year into his tenure as Diego's trainer,
27:50Fabia takes over Diego's pre-fight meeting with the UFC broadcast team to mostly complain about how they talk about
27:57him.
27:57I just don't feel that the past couple fights, this man has gotten a fair end of the stick and
28:02sure as **** I sure haven't either.
28:04Okay?
28:05Because nobody's actually talked to me, met me, moved with me, yet there's a whole lot of **** talk about
28:10me.
28:10Please, go to Google, go to YouTube and just, no, no, real quick.
28:16Put in my name and then see what's going on with the slander.
28:20I've seen it.
28:21Okay, so you've seen it.
28:22They're all well aware of it.
28:23So if you're well aware, why are we acting like this didn't happen?
28:26Why are you talking?
28:27This is not about you.
28:29This is Diego's fighter meeting.
28:31No, no, no.
28:31Diego couldn't get a sentence out.
28:33The fact that Diego stayed so silent, that scared me.
28:37Diego wasn't Diego anymore.
28:40Diego all of a sudden was Joshua Fabia's product, not the nightmare.
28:46And that, that just baffles me, just baffles me.
28:52As concern and criticism of Fabia intensifies, so does the brutal training regimen he forces Diego to endure.
29:00I would be out every morning at 4 a.m. pouring zero degree water on my naked body.
29:08And I'd have to stay out in the cold till the sun came up.
29:12So I could understand the difference between darkness and light.
29:19Having a guy like that, that can prove things to you, show you things and do things that you've never
29:25ever seen anybody do.
29:27Now you're basically like a slave to him.
29:36In 2020, a video surfaces that sparks mockery of Fabia's methods, especially from Diego's fellow fighters.
29:44There were a few other fighters in the cage and he was kind of chasing them around with a knife.
29:52Like they had to kind of move out of the way.
29:57It was the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen.
30:01What does that teach you?
30:03What does that teach you when you're a mixed martial artist?
30:07Zero.
30:10That's not MMA.
30:12It goes to show you how dangerous the guy could be.
30:15One little slice and could hurt or killed one of us UFC fighters.
30:20Why is he making me fight with a knife?
30:23You know, probably to put more fear in me so that I'm more submissive to his plan.
30:30Coach, hit me with the stick.
30:33And perhaps even more disturbing than that was the video of Diego being held upside down and him being kicked
30:44and punched and slapped.
30:46I don't know where this style had came from, but he had done a little bit of bone conditioning before
30:54with sticks, but he had never taken it to really like the punching and the kicking.
31:00I think in that moment he was egotistical that he was getting his little moment on the camera.
31:07So what in the hell is going on here?
31:10Because one of the things that is absolutely a problem with any contact sport is head trauma.
31:17And here is this jackass standing there with someone hanging upside down and hitting them in the head.
31:24That was the moment I said, man, whoever this guy is, he's a douchebag and he needs to be stopped.
31:32Unfortunately, it wasn't stopped soon enough.
31:35I was just going along with whatever he had already implemented in his game plan.
31:41Remember, I'm the slave. He's the master.
31:45When you're the slave and he's the master, he has the plan. He makes the call.
31:51There is no question of me asking anything. I just have to go along with it.
31:59Diego was down mentally. He was lost mentally at that time.
32:03And this guy came in as a guy who fixes those six inches between your ears.
32:08And when you have a guy who's broken and you have a guy who can talk that talk,
32:13it doesn't surprise me that Diego thought that Joshua Fabio was the answer.
32:18This is a dangerous and tough sport, but there's a lot of things that happen outside of the cage that
32:24are probably more harmful than anything else.
32:27There's just a lot of leeches and evil people out there that are trying to take advantage of you in
32:32some way, shape or form.
32:35When the UFC comes to Diego with one last fight, it offers to give him a fairytale ending to his
32:40storied MMA career.
32:42A match in Albuquerque in front of his hometown fans with a payday large enough to let him retire.
32:48His opponent is fellow Jackson Wink alumnus and veteran fighter Donald Cowboy Cerrone.
32:56Donald and Diego were together forever, both out of Jackson Wink.
33:00If I'm going to watch a fight between these two guys, I want to watch this one based upon they're
33:05both close to the same age.
33:07They both come from the same place.
33:08They both have a skill set that kind of matches up to be one of those great fights.
33:13This is going to be awesome. Yeah, this is a good fight. And it never happened.
33:18Just days before Diego is to be celebrated in the octagon, Fabio makes it all about himself, calling the UFC
33:25to formally request Diego's medical records.
33:28It's bizarre. I had never heard of somebody asking for medical records. I don't know what the point is. I
33:33don't know if we're going to try to sue him or what.
33:35So he was going to find a way to manipulate the UFC by talking bad about them and medicals and
33:42that they're doing improper things.
33:45Astro turfing, the witch hunting, the sidelining, gaslighting.
33:52Clearly, nobody wants to talk about the sensitive subjects of this sport, right?
33:57It got heated between the UFC and Josh.
34:01I guess it put enough of a spook in Dana that he was like, nope, you're out.
34:06That guy's such a f***ing goofball. If you take anything that that guy says serious, you know, you should be
34:13f***ing beat with a stick, okay?
34:15I think the kid is mentally ill.
34:17Still under Fabio's spell, Diego sees the UFC as the perpetrator and he and Fabio as the victims.
34:25People don't like him because he's saying shit that people don't want to hear.
34:30When I bled, I've sweat, I've f***ing cried. I've f***ing cried for this f***ing company.
34:38I've f***ing sacrificed more than you will ever know.
34:43Honestly, I think that Joshua Fabio should have been saying those things.
34:48But he had just destroyed Diego mentally so badly and created so much heat.
34:57The Diego Sanchez we all loved, including every single person at the UFC, all the way top, all the way
35:05to the bottom, was gone.
35:08It was, uh, it was horrendous. It was, it was extremely tough to watch.
35:14I was under his spell and I believed him these things that he was telling me.
35:19What some of the s*** that he might bring awareness and light to could seriously change and affect a monopoly
35:28billion, ten billion dollar organization.
35:32I was just caught in the middle of the entanglement that Fabio was trying to expose to the UFC and
35:38trying to go against the UFC.
35:42That unquestioning belief in Fabio pushes Diego to the brink.
35:45Let me tell you, I've requested medicals. I've requested to get some CT scans that were mine.
35:50After I f***ing took the f***ing blow from, from BJ Penn.
35:55After I, I f***ed Martin Catman, Gilbert Melendez, all these m*********.
36:00No, no, no, no, no.
36:01And forces the UFC to push back.
36:04Imagine if we're going to stop whether we like it or not.
36:06You're going to be shut up.
36:07I don't want to do that.
36:07And the truth of it is, the truth hurts.
36:10We're living on all the f***ing time.
36:12That's the truth right there.
36:19Mr. F***ing self-awareness.
36:22And all he does is comes out and starts, you know, talking s*** about people.
36:27When Joshua Fabio learns UFC president Dana White plans to file a defamation case against him, the situation takes an
36:33even darker turn.
36:36That really scared him.
36:38And he, that's when he really started losing his mind a little bit.
36:41Like, it started getting even crazier, you know.
36:44Like, he was, started staying up on the phone all crazy all night.
36:48I mean, for hours.
36:50I mean, messaging every single person, like, on my Instagram.
36:56Like, he was going to town, you know.
37:00He was obsessed and crazy.
37:03And finally, it all becomes too much for Diego to handle, as he and his family start to fear what
37:08Fabio will do next.
37:10This guy was very, very vengeful.
37:13I always had a feeling, you know, this guy's planning something against me.
37:19Like, no matter what, he's still always going to blame me.
37:22And I noticed the change in my son.
37:25He was not happy.
37:26And I could tell.
37:27And he was quiet.
37:29He was turning quiet.
37:29I changed, I did.
37:31Yeah.
37:31And I was very, very concerned.
37:34We really couldn't do a whole lot about it, because we were concerned about his safety.
37:41Well, mine too, and my baby girl.
37:43She was there.
37:44You know, so we had to proceed with caution.
37:48Caution turns to terror when Joshua Fabia and his assistant pay a visit to Diego's mother.
37:54Josh got a lot of hate.
37:56So he wanted to film me on Mother's Day.
38:00We talked about the UFC, and he asked a lot of questions.
38:03But when it came to that question, what do you think of his trainer now?
38:08And I said, well, I don't really know.
38:10I don't know him that well.
38:12They were pushing for me to say good things, and I wouldn't.
38:16And I didn't, because I wasn't going to do it.
38:18And that's when he got upset, and he threw a tantrum.
38:22And his woman was yelling at me too.
38:26They were both yelling at me at the same time.
38:28You know, they were very angry.
38:29And then that's when he said, okay, I give up.
38:32And he walked out.
38:34It was just a setup to make Fabia look good.
38:40For Diego, Fabia threatening his mother makes him finally realize he is going to have to fight the most dangerous
38:46opponent he has ever faced.
38:47For me, it was like, had got to such a peak that it was so deep that either this guy
38:56was going to kill me, or I was going to have to kill him.
39:01With his family potentially in mortal danger, Diego realizes he needs to try and unshackle himself from Joshua Fabia, the
39:09man he let become his master.
39:11And I did want to kill him, but I knew if I went to those measures that I was going
39:17to miss the second half of my child's childhood.
39:24Instead, Diego agrees to buy his way out of bondage.
39:28You want your freedom.
39:29You can have it.
39:30You're going to write a check to me and School of Self for $100,000.
39:37As I told you, this is the case when this happens, because you've robbed me of everything.
39:43They made me sign the check right there in that moment on camera to have proof that it wasn't a
39:49forced thing.
39:52At that moment, it was the easiest thing to do because I would have done anything to get out of
39:59that situation.
40:00You told me all of this money is mine as I did all the work.
40:05And you're now on your own.
40:06If your mother doesn't realize we were your family, you didn't tell her that?
40:10You know, it wasn't just Fabia being crazy.
40:15It's the fact that I was in true danger and people were able to see that I was.
40:26So if you're involved in one of these situations, all I can tell you is before you get too deep,
40:35get out while you can.
40:37And do not let this person take control of your life.
40:44Your life is your life.
40:46And you are not a slave.
40:50After paying off Fabia, Diego reconciles with the UFC.
40:54The only thing that Diego Sanchez is guilty of is being a really nice guy.
41:01Diego is a little out there.
41:02OK, he's not on the same, you know, wavelength as most of us.
41:10But make no mistakes.
41:12Diego Sanchez is one of the nicest people you will ever meet.
41:14He's a good person.
41:16You know, me and Dana, we go way back.
41:19We go back to when UFC was 70 million in debt.
41:24I'm not crying a fit that I lost my UFC career.
41:28I had a great UFC career, even the times that they were stitching me up in the back.
41:33I lived the fullest of life in the UFC.
41:36I just told him, I'm just so grateful that you gave me the opportunity to have this career.
41:43I'm forever grateful for all the moments I had in the UFC.
41:48Well, I think people should know and not judge Diego because they don't know what he went through.
41:55Very painful.
41:56Very painful.
41:56He was going through a lot.
42:02So crazy, man.
42:04All the memories and emotions.
42:09Inside the Jackson Wink gym in Albuquerque, it's easy for Diego to relive his best days as a young fighter
42:16just starting out.
42:17Wow.
42:1821 year old Diego Sanchez in martial arts.
42:21If you make it to the cover of Black Belt Magazine, it definitely means you have arrived.
42:26You are here and you put your blueprint down on the martial arts history.
42:33Diego Sanchez helped the UFC become what it is today.
42:38He defines ultimate fighter and he should have been able to have his last fight.
42:44I think Diego Sanchez should be remembered in an inspirational way.
42:48This was a guy that lived and breathed it and went as far as he could, as hard as he
42:53could.
42:54And you have to respect that.
42:56I am just going to follow God.
42:59And what doors open that are going to open, I'm going to be ready to step through those doors.
43:06It's hard at the end of the career to accept to move on to something else.
43:11You know, you want to do it as long as you can and to the best you can.
43:15Come on.
43:16But I want to be a great coach and give the passion and share the knowledge and use mixed martial
43:24arts for something positive.
43:26Open up the floodgates of heaven for us.
43:29Because a lot of people can go down the wrong path on accident.
43:34And for me, I want to be the coach that's like, that stuff isn't even a worry.
43:40That's never going to happen to my fighter because I'm going to be so far ahead of it.
43:44I think he'd be a great coach. So hopefully he gets to coach here. Be fun.
43:48Fink. Fink. Fink. Fink.
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