Diego Sanchez beefs up after losing split decision to Jon Fitch at UFC 76

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This article was published 26/02/2008 (6613 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The size of Diego (Nightmare) Sanchez’s heart has never really been questioned. But after losing to Jon Fitch, Sanchez concluded he had to beef up the rest of his body.

The intense mixed martial arts welterweight tried to submit the bigger Fitch from all angles, eventually losing a split decision at UFC 76 in September. It marked Sanchez’s second straight loss after’ consecutive wins and, just like his earlier setback to Josh Koscheck at UFC 69 last April, it set Sanchez thinking.

Remain a welterweight and campaign at 170 pounds? Or move down to lightweight and fight at 155.

At 6-1, Fitch towered over Sanchez, who is listed at 5-10. And the former Purdue wrestler was able to use his size and strength to control Sanchez on the ground for much of the fight. Fitch didn’t do too much damage from the top, concentrating instead on neutralizing Sanchez’s jiu-jitsu, but it proved enough for the win.

On a couple of occasions when the fight was off the ground, Sanchez found himself attached to Fitch’s back like a limpet. Fitch just let gravity doing its work, falling to the ground on top of Sanchez. It was like two brothers scrapping – with the older Fitch getting the best of his game but younger opponent.

The lesson was all too clear for Sanchez.

“I learned that I need to be stronger for 170 pounds because I had stopped lifting weights and doing power and strength lifting the last three years,” he explained in an interview. “I put my main focus into boxing and mixed martial arts training in general . . . I became a runner instead of a lifter and, you know, I had to make a decision and my decision was either to go down to 155 and be an enormous 155-pounder or stay at 170 and get stronger, hit the weights.”

Sanchez opted to stay at 170, deciding he wanted a chance to challenge the likes of Montreal’s Georges St. Pierre, Matt Hughes and Matt Serra. “Those guys are the best at 170 and those are the guys I want to fight.”

But the 26-year-old also realized he need to bulk up.

“Obviously those guys are real strong so I had to go back to the basics, start powerlifting again. I started doing some kettlebell training . . . it was obvious I needed to get stronger. Fitch was able to hold me down and outposition me with his strength and leverage and that’s something that will never happen again. Because I’m much stronger and I’m ready for this.”

On Saturday, Sanchez gets to demonstrate that against 28-year-old David Bielkheden (12-5) at UFC 82 in Columbus, Ohio, on the undercard of the middleweight title fight between champion Anderson Silva and former Pride title-holder Dan Henderson.

The Sanchez-Bielkheden bout is not slated to be part of the pay-per-view broadcast, proof of the UFC’s no-nonsense “what have you done lately for me” approach to fighters.

Bielkheden, a Swedish jiu-jitsu black belt, has trained in Brazil and fought in Pride, losing to Mitsuhiro Ishida in November 2006 at Bushido-.

“He’s got a relatively good record. His losses are to good guys,” said Sanchez. “He’s never been stopped, he’s never been knocked out. He’s tough. He’s been a kickboxer his whole life and then he started learning jiu-jitsu. He lived in Brazil for a while training jiu-jitsu so I’m expecting him to be good on the ground and good standing also.”

“Most of all I’m just happy that he stepped up to the plate and signed to fight,” he added. “Because I was trying to get a fight for January and February, talking to the matchmaking at the UFC asking for a fight. We were having problems finding an opponent because everybody else was already signed for a fight date.”

Sanchez, who fought as a middlweight in winning Season 1 of “The Ultimate Fighter” reality TV show, made significant changes after losing to Koscheck. He left the Greg Jackson camp in Albuquerque, N.M., not happy that rival welterweight St. Pierre had joined the fold, and moved to San Diego to train.

He also tried to rediscover his hunger. Fined US$500 and suspended three months for a positive test for marijuana following his win over Joe Riggs some four months before the Koscheck loss, Sanchez knew he had lost his way.

“I look at my losses as stepping stones in my maturity,” he said. “Obviously I had a lot of fame and money thrown my way at an young age and I would have to be honest in saying it deterred me from my path to my destiny. But there’s nothing like the feeling of a loss, and all the true champions out there who have received losses, they know what it’s like to come back and feel the pain of a loss and know what it’s like to get back in the gym and work even harder.”

Sanchez, whose eyes are like headlamps during pre-fight staredowns in the cage, runs on high-grade emotion when it comes to fighting and sometimes it gets the worst of him. But before fights, he likes to enter the cage and kneel, seeking some kind of peace and inner strength.

It’s the kind of dichotomy that makes Sanchez a fascinating fighter.

The raw emotion was on display last April in Houston when he shoved Koscheck at the UFC 69 weigh-in and, perhaps fuelled by his dislike for his opponent, opted to stand and swing at his former TUF rival.

It later came out that Sanchez almost retired on the eve of the fight, because of a false test for hepatitis C. The day after the bout he was diagnosed with a staph infection that left a hole in his thigh the size of a coffee cup, according to UFC president Dana White.

Sanchez says fans will see a new, improved fighter Saturday night.

“A different animal, exactly,” he said.

“It’s going to be a very, very game Diego Sanchez on March 1.”