Trainer Saulo Ribeiro, "TUF" coach Chuck Liddell on Diego Sanchez
Some of the highest peaks in the U.S. are located in Lake Tahoe, Calif.
And that's where Diego "Nightmare" Sanchez spent the first month of the new year living like a nomad, training at heights up to 7,000 feet above sea level, training on altitude to push his cardio conditioning beyond the most inhuman of tests.
What lies ahead is the conclusion of a severe, though self-imposed, weight cut. A time change. Even an adjustment in cuisine when for UFC 95, which takes place Saturday in London, England.
"The food I hear," said Sanchez in a recent UFC 95 conference call, "is crappy in London."
This coming from someone who once ate red meat well done and rubbery enough to play Frisbee, who lived on boxes of Rice Krispies every night while competing on the first season of "The Ultimate Fighter 1" in 2005.
Besides the cereal diet on "TUF," Sanchez had to endure what his season-one coach Chuck Liddell compared to living in prison – except with a kitchen, a swimming pool and a view of the Las Vegas skyline. Twice raw sewage flooded the downstairs bathrooms, and several fighters were stricken with illnesses such as impetigo, a flesh-eating virus, and even respiratory infection.
The fighters were around each other 24-7, creating a caged-animal mentality within those already trained to kill or be killed.
Sanchez survived as the last one standing in the middleweight class, but there were lots more to discover as a fighter. He embarked on a journey that led him to a drop from middleweight to welterweight and an undefeated 17-0 record before he suffered back-to-back decision losses to Josh Koscheck and Jon Fitch in 2007.
Sanchez is still searching for answers to what will take him to his ultimate goal. He yearns to be a champion in not one, but two divisions. His altitude training, he said, will help with recovery from and adaption to any situation: weight change, time change, the drive to finish his opponent and not let three judges determine an outcome.
A monster at 155
"We're going to finish this fight," Saulo Ribeiro, Sanchez's trainer, told MMAjunkie.com (
www.mmajunkie.com). "It's going to cost us a bit of risk, but we're going to take that risk. Because if [we] don't take risks, Diego is never going to be champion of the world."
Headlining a major (non-"UFC Fight Night") card for the first time in his career, Sanchez (19-2 MMA, 8-2 UFC) battles Joe "Daddy" Stevenson (29-9 MMA, 6-3 UFC) at UFC 95 Saturday in London, England. He intends to meet the 155-pound lightweight limit and complete an overall drop of 38 pounds since Christmas Eve. Red meat and Rice Krispies were replaced by fish, brown rice, egg whites and spinach for a daily total calorie count of 1,100. When on the top of his game, Sanchez is a dynamo that attacks from the opening bell. Thanks to the new diet, his camp is confident he'll be running on premium unleaded.
"If you put [crappy] gasoline in your car, it's not going to work 100 percent," Ribeiro says. "You have to experience different nutrition, different foods and different supplements. Diego has found what food, meats and supplements are good for him. He's really balanced right now. He's going to make 155."
Despite an 8-2 record as a welterweight, Sanchez's reasoning for dropping down was simple. He wanted a challenge, one that required a lot of discipline. And while UFC lightweight champion B.J. Penn is on Sanchez's radar, Stevenson is his solitary focus.
To start Sanchez is diving straight into the lightweight division's deep waters. Stevenson is angry over a lost opportunity at Penn's title when Kenny Florian made him submit in the first round at UFC 91 and showed his feisty side when he recently told The Daily Mirror that Sanchez's choice of opponent was "a bad decision, and I am going make him regret it."
"Joe can think whatever he thinks," Ribeiro says. "It's not up to Joe to decide if he's a good or bad decision for Diego. I think Diego is very confident and comfortable with the choice that he made. You're going to see a very, very scary Diego Sanchez for this fight. At 155 Diego is going to be a monster. You're going to see the best of Diego ever."
Ribeiro is a third-degree black belt in Brazilian jiu jitsu and a six-time gold medalist and world jiu-jitsu champion. He took Sanchez under his wing after the former's unanimous-decision loss to Josh Koscheck in April 2007. Right away Ribeiro learned that Sanchez needed no motivation and that his will to win is coming from within.
"Everybody wants to be the champ, but just a few want to pay the price," Ribeiro says. "And the price is high. The price is hard."
The road to UFC contention
The martial arts became Sanchez's calling at the age of 9. He parlayed the interest into a state wrestling championship at 152 pounds his senior year at Del Norde High School (Albuquerque, N.M.). He made his money after graduation working at UPS and honed his craft by earning a black belt in Gaidojutsu before making his MMA debut in 2002.
Working smaller shows, including the King of the Cage, Sanchez raced to an 11-0 start before he was chosen as a participant on an upstart MMA-themed series on Spike TV called "The Ultimate Fighter." That first season of "TUF" saw a mix of prospects and veterans looking for one last shot at glory. It was a group that featured the likes of current UFC stars Forrest Griffin, Kenny Florian, Mike Swick, Nate Quarry, Stephan Bonnar and others.
All 16 fighters lived together in a plush mansion – one with a septic system designed for four people. Prohibited were television, books, phone calls and field trips to anywhere but the gym.
Many of the fighters claimed they were misled about the premise. A few (Josh Koscheck, Chris Leben and Bobby Southworth, for example) were consumed by emotions. All Sanchez did was keep going, taking whatever aggression he had pent up into his workouts.
"He worked very hard and is very competitive at what he does," Liddell, Sanchez's celebrity coach on the show, told MMAjunkie.com. "He had a great drive to get better. That work ethic stood out during his training, and he thrived."
Having earned a UFC contract with his first-round TKO of Florian at the show's live finale in April 2005, Sanchez won his first six UFC fights after moving from middleweight to welterweight. He bumped his MMA record to 17-0 by scoring the first UFC knockout of his career over Joe Riggs.
The top of the MMA world was at his fingertips, and up next was Koscheck, a "TUF" castmate, at UFC 69. However, there was a critical element missing from Sanchez's game, the ferocity that helped him steamroll over Riggs.
Sanchez entered round three trailing in the bout, but instead of charging his opponent, desperate to steal a win, Sanchez's timed jabs were countered by Koscheck's hand speed. Sanchez lost the fight on all three judges' cards, and several weeks after the fight, it was revealed he nearly lost everything. He had tested positive for hepatitis C, a liver virus that can go undetected for years and can lead to cirrhosis, liver cancer and even liver failure.
UFC president Dana White was to announce Sanchez's retirement at the prefight weigh-in, but the fight went on, and a series of follow-up tests revealed not hepatitis C, but a venomous staph infection, which developed into a ghastly cup-sized wound on his leg.
Five months later, Sanchez lost a split decision to a much-bigger Jon Fitch, but he rebounded to win his next two fights with stops of David Bielkheden and Luigi Fiorvanti to reclaim his status as a top welterweight. The TKO of Fiorvanti, a climatic finish that saw Sanchez piece together a left kick to the head, a running knee and a flurry of blows, led UFC analyst Joe Rogan to scream, "Diego Sanchez is back for sure!"
Ribeiro counters that notion. Sanchez may have hit a rough patch, but he never went anywhere. A simple cleansing was in order.
"Diego is surrounded by people who want to go where he wants to go," Ribeiro says. "One of the hard things to do was [get rid of] the people who wanted to take advantage of the fighters' fame but don't want to put in the hard work. The whole crew today is surrounded by good professionals who want to see Diego become the best 155-pounder in the world. All the things that happened in the past were good lessons for Diego, and now he understands what being a professional fighter means."
Liddell: "He'll go as far as he wants"
Sanchez is no stranger to lost opportunities.
He was to battle Thiago Alves in October; the winner would likely meet Georges St. Pierre for the welterweight crown. However, Sanchez suffered a rib injury in training and was forced him to pull out with two weeks' notice.
Ribeiro believes his fighter can take Penn right now, even though Sanchez must first get by Stevenson, a perennial contender who's fallen short in his few big fights.
The winner Saturday rises dramatically up the lightweight ladder. The loser is sent spiraling down a treacherous mountain.
"'Joe Daddy' is a tough guy that almost got there but didn't get there," Ribeiro says. "So I think that they gave one more chance to Joe Daddy to see if he wants to stay as a top contender or if his journey with the UFC is over. Diego is going to face a guy who's going to give everything or nothing, and I expect a great fight.
"He's in peace. He's in a peace of mind and injury free. We're going to go to London in the main event, and we're going to make a statement: 'OK, give us a title shot, or what?'"
With those remarks Ribeiro resumed the business of training a fighter and the art of molding character. The last couple of weeks were spent in Las Vegas before heading overseas, where Sanchez faces his latest and greatest challenge.
"He keeps learning; he'll go as far as he wants to in this weight class and show what he's made of," Liddell said. "Saturday is his first chance to show where he's at."
Sanchez has already manned up, winning every battle life has thrown at him - for the simple reason that he's willing to pay the price. Those stairs will remain hard to climb, but putting Stevenson down for the count will make a view of the top a bit clearer.
