Thursday night, the UFC returns to action as they present their third feature on the Verses Network. Headlining the night’s card at the KFC Yum! Center (great name) in Louisville, Kentucky is an exciting welterweight showdown as the newly nicknamed former nightmare Diego “The Dream” Sanchez competes against perennial top contender the Danish hit man Martin Kampmann, for the first time ever in 3-D.
Sanchez, the winner of the first Ultimate Fighter competition as a middleweight, tries to regain his glory as a top welterweight contender after his disappointing but exciting run as a lightweight. As you can clearly tell, Sanchez has been having somewhat of an identity crisis, after changing divisions, training camps and nicknames all in a short year’s period.
After abandoning the welterweight division after a successful run, Sanchez decided to test himself out at 155lbs., because he thought it was his best chance to win a championship. His time as a lightweight was short but satisfying to fans as he put up extremely exciting fights during this time, especially his June 2009 contest against the mad man Clay Guida which earned Fight of the Year. His split decision victory over Guida was enough to catapult him into a championship fight with then champion B.J. Penn.
Heading into the fight against Penn, Sanchez was full of confidence as he spent a majority of his promo time performing his trademark YES! Cartwheels leading up to the fight. The fight was disappointing for Sanchez as in the first thirty seconds of the contest; Sanchez was hurt badly twice by a Penn left counter-boxing hook and knee combination and he was not the same for the rest of the five round bout. Penn was dominant throughout the night and during the final round was able to kick Sanchez on the forehead which resulted in a fitting stop to the fight and caused Sanchez’ forehead to resemble a bloody vagina.
This was a devastating loss for Sanchez as this was his moment and he felt there was no way he could be beaten. Well not only was he beaten, he was unquestionably dominated to the point where he decided a return to welterweight was the best career choice.
However, the “Nightmare” still was not over for Sanchez as his return to welterweight resulted in yet another embarrassing defeat, this time to an up and coming John Hathaway, who Sanchez was supposed to be able to run through. Again, early in the fight Sanchez was hurt and was not able to recover, resulting in another dominating performance by his opponent.
Recently, Sanchez performed an interview where he stated he did not take Hathaway seriously and was not physically or mentally prepared for the fight. He admitted to not taking his training camp seriously and said after training he would go to the bar and drink and smoke weed. Sanchez knew his career was going down the tubes fast and he needed to make a change, and make it quick.
The change Sanchez decided to make was one of the best decisions of his life, as he returned to the gym he originally started out with, Team Jackson in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The change back to Team Jackson enabled Sanchez to regain all the tools he was missing and resulted in a breathtaking fight of the night winning performance over the dangerous Paolo Thiago this past October.
Team Jackson is unquestionably one of the best fight camps in the world and many high profile mixed martial artists train there regularly such as Rashad Evans, Georges St. Pierre, and Jon Jones among others. This crop of training partners allows Sanchez to train with the best fighters consecutively on a day to day basis and are always pushing him to become a better mixed martial artist.
The result of the return to Greg Jackson has also caused Sanchez to become refocused and rededicated to the sport he loves. They say in fighting 90% of the fight is mental and this is what Sanchez needed in order to return to the promised land. Sanchez has quit the partying and instead spends his free time doing the little things that win fights such as running the mountains in his downtime, lifting weights after training and visiting high school wrestling gyms to practice on his technique. While these extra preparations are without a doubt physically challenging, it is the mental aspect which these practices focus on more.
Heading into Thursday night’s bout, Sanchez in his heart feels he has already won the fight. While he has always been a wacky, crazy confident dude, Sanchez seems to have a different demeanor as the fight approaches. He seems more relaxed than he has ever been and knows that if one thing goes wrong during the fight he will be able to recover. His weight is at the highest it has ever been, in a good way and he knows that if one of his takedowns is unsuccessful, he has ten more different approaches to get the fight down to the mat and work his ground and pound.
A humbled down Diego Sanchez is a scary, scary man. Sanchez even went as far as changing his nickname from the “Nightmare” to the “Dream” to complete his reformation. The reason for the change is that Sanchez felt nightmares bring negative emotions and consequences and he did not want to represent that. So, what is the direct opposite of nightmares, I’ll give you a second to think about it…..Dreams! A dream represents positivity and all things good and Thursday night, Diego Sanchez looks to continue his dream of becoming the UFC Welterweight Champion.
YES!
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